Star Trek: Utopia's Fall
by kellineil
Summary: What if Operation Return fails? How different are the humans of the 24th Century from those of the 20th? Find out what may have happened if the Prophets hadn't have intervened. Being rewritten before new chapters are added. Rated M due to very dark themes
1. The Federation (UFP) before the Dominion

**A/N: I will be refreshing all the chapters posted so far before posting new chapters. Obviously, I do not own Star Trek**

 _"Let the galaxy burn..." - Unknown Starfleet Captain, Second Battle of Saturn_

 _" Let me tell you something about The Federation. They're a wonderful, friendly people, as long as their bellies are full and their holosuites are working. But take away their creature comforts, deprive them of food, sleep, sonic showers, put their lives in jeopardy over an extended period of time and those same friendly, intelligent, wonderful people... will become as nasty and as violent as the most bloodthirsty Klingon. You don't believe me? Look at those faces. Look in their eyes" - Quark, former owner, Quark's Bar, Deep Space 9/Terok Nor_

If sometime before the Dominion War you had asked the average Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian or Ferengi what humans were like, you would have heard variations on a theme. They were soft, weak and decadent. They believed themselves superior but never stirred themselves from their holodecks and replicators, from their easy lives. They were easy pickings, just waiting for an outside power to step in and conquer them. In fact, if it were not for a series of frankly freak occurrences this would already have happened! There was much truth to this assessment of 24th Century humanity. It was soft, it was weak, it was decadent. However, it also missed a core truth. Replicators and holodecks were simply a modern version a very old means of control, that of bread and circuses.

The ancient approach, pioneered by civilisations as diverse as Egypt, China and Rome to ruling mobs reached its apotheosis during the time of the UFP. Homo Sapiens, a species almost uniquely capable of both supreme acts of kindness and supreme acts of depravity were kept quiet and content with unlimited access to food and entertainment. As a result, they became decadent, soft, complacent and appeared to become weak. But at their core they were still the species that had perpetrated such horrors as the Holocaust, Eugenics Wars and countless other acts of genocide. Likewise, the true nature of the Vulcans and Andorrans was also supressed in the utopian society of the UFP. The Vulcans by logic and the Andorrans by similar means to the methods used on humans. These controls would come crashing down in the fires of the Dominion War

The 2360s and early 2370s would provide a slow increase in shocks to the UFP. Alien infiltration of Starfleet, a resurgent Romulan threat, the first encounter with the Borg, subsequent invasion and defeat at the Battle of Wolf 359 plus continued conflict with the Cardassians would slowly erode the feeling of safety and security that had been the birth right of all Federation citizens for 100 years. Nonetheless, each of these were invariably seen as standalone events and not warnings of what was to come. Some preparations were made, especially in response to the Borg threat, but these were few and far between. Without these lacklustre attempts at preparing however, Starfleet would have been even less ready for the disastrous first contact with the Dominion in 2370.

If the Federation had respected the borders of the Dominion after first contact was made, perhaps events would have unfolded differently. However, the Federation was nothing if not proud. It had been over 100 years since they'd last been truly tested in battle. Of course, wars had happened, but these had been on the periphery and involved perhaps a few dozen starships at most. The core members of the Federation hadn't truly fought a war for survival since the Earth-Romulan war, prior to the foundation of the Federation. In no small part, this was due to the undoubted potential of the Federation. The Romulan and Klingon Empires, the other two major powers in the local area on the border of the Alpha and Beta quadrants were able to match the Federation for power, but only by maintaining a virtual war economy at all times (this was especially true of the Klingons). In contrast, the Federation barely put the effort in to matching these powers. The leaderships of these two empires were aware of this and hence focussed most military effort on undermining their rival empire whilst leaving the sleeping giant alone.

This bred a hubris in the Federation like none that had been seen before. Without trying they were superior to all possible competitors. Even the Borg were defeated! True, it had been a close run thing, so the naysayers said, but to the average citizen that fact was lost. For them, the Federation had yet again triumphed. And so they arrogantly sauntered into the backyard of a power like none they had faced before. A power that was as convinced of it's own superiority as the Federation was of it's. A power that would ultimately bring about the fall of Utopia.

Starfleet was woefully ill-prepared for the start of the war in 2373. The core issue that the fleet faced was the belief and culture within it of being primarily an exploration body. This culture was seen at all levels of the organisation. Indeed, many senior officers were actually offended if Starfleet were referred to as a military organisation! This mind-set resulted in Starfleet building ships that were veritable pleasure cruiser - replete with all the facilities you might expect of such craft including the replicators and holodecks the Federation was famous for. Weaponry and defensive systems were of distinctly secondary importance and Federation starships were generally under-armed compared with similar ship classes from other powers. When serving on larger ships officers and enlisted personnel often brought their families with them which only underlined the fact that these weren't warships.

The situation was further underlined when looking at the personal equipment of individual officers and enlisted men (most definitely _not_ soldiers). When facing hostile forces at close quarters, Starfleet personnel would generally be equipped with their standard uniform and hand phasers. Phaser rifles were very rarely issued, generally in only the direst of situations. In contrast, most other powers going into similar combat situations would arm their soldiers with their native equivalent of a phaser rifle and at least some form of body armour as protection. Local versions of hand phasers would only be issued as side arms. Is it any wonder then that Starfleet was seen by other powers as weak and unwilling to fight? Yet these vessels and equipment was what Starfleet had to face the Dominion onslaught with. They were pitifully inadequate for the task at hand.

And what of the Federation's approach to the production of the sinews of war? It can only be said that they tried to avoid it all costs! What other excuse can there be for a system which prior to the war took upwards of a year to produce less than a dozen starships? Especially when it's remembered that during the Siege of Sol, the shipyards at Earth, Mars and Jupiter were able to churn out entire fleets of warships in less than 6 weeks. In fact, at the height of production, they were being produced so quickly that the majority of ships had less than 30 biological crew members on board!

The irony of course is that all the technologies and tactics required to win the war already existed in 2370. What the Federation lacked was the will to use them. Indeed, most Federation citizens would have been appalled at the mere suggestion of genetically altering soldiers to be more effective on the battlefield (and indeed of the thought of _soldiers_ existing at all _)_ or of using cloaking devices, or of creating biological weapons etc. It would take the devastating defeats of the first 2 years of the war to alter this mind-set.

Not all sections of Starfleet supported the status quo. Certain officers, coming together under the name of Section 31 saw to it that whatever the intention of the UFP leadership, the ability to do whatever it took to defend utopia remained. They created novel viruses for use against the Founders, preserved blueprints of the Genesis Device. They even maintained a working phasing cloaking device and the necessary materials to rapidly replicate additional units. These preparations proved invaluable during the crisis of 2375.

In the final analysis, the Federation of 2370 was a clawless superpower. It had the potential to dominate all other powers but chose instead to be an inoffensive giant, constantly worrying about scaring its neighbours and so wrapping itself in chains and fetters of its own making. It's successor, the reborn Coalition of Planets of 2380, would be a very different beast indeed. The Dominion on the other hand was a vast power in the Gamma Quadrant. Were it not for the discovery of the Bajoran wormhole, the two powers would probably not have met for several centuries. Fate however had other plans, and so, in 2370, the Federation decided to start exploring the Gamma Quadrant without bothering to ensure the local powers were happy. The ultimate end result of this blundering was the fall of not one, not two but five major powers, including two superpowers, and the rebirth of an old one, the Coalition. And in the resurrection of the Coalition, the Dominion would learn how fatal it was to strip humanity of it replicators and holodecks, it's bread and circuses.

The galaxy's age of innocence was over...


	2. The Dominion at First Contact

_"_ _What you can control can't hurt you." – Unknown Founder_

Information regarding the fallen Dominion is difficult to come by. Prior to its collapse at the end of the Dominion War, very little was learnt about it by the Federation, Klingon Empire or Coalition. What little is known suggests that it was a vast power, with massive military resources. Had it not been for the logistic chokepoint of the Bajoran wormhole and the Founders inability to devolve power to the 'solids', it is very likely that the Dominion would have succeeded in conquering the near Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

At the core of the Dominion were the Founders. These liquid state shape-shifters had originally started exploring the stars several millennia before the fateful War. Initially approaching other races, who without fail were solid state, or 'solids', openly and desiring nothing more than friendship, they were rejected by their local interstellar community who were afraid of their unique abilities. Hunted and persecuted by the solids, they retreated to their home planet for an unknown period. When they returned to space, they approached the galaxy very differently than they had previously.

Experience had taught the Founders that they couldn't trust solids. How best to deal with the galaxy then? They couldn't just hide on their home world; the solids may find it and attack them there. They also didn't have the will to simply exterminate their persecutors. The only option left was to control them utterly. And thus the Dominion was formed. At it's very core, the Dominion existed to assuage this visceral fear that the Founders held. That the solids would seek to exterminate them. Ironically, the very steps they took to protect themselves would lead to the extermination they feared so much.

The Founders were the central pillar of the Dominion, but they weren't involved in either the day to day running of their empire, nor in its defence and expansion. These roles were taken by two engineered and enslaved solid species. It is not known when or how the Vorta and Jem H'adar were created. Were they genetically engineered from some base humanoid stock? Were they created from scratch? These questions will never be answered. Whatever their origins, these two servant species would be at the forefront of the Founders attempt to exert control over everything that they feared.

By the time of first contact with the Federation, the Dominion had existed as the major Gamma Quadrant power for centuries, if not millennia. The Founders continued to reign supreme, although by then they took little interest in the affairs of solids. It was enough that they were left alone, protected by their faithful servants. As the millennia had passed, the Founders had become increasingly xenophobic, increasingly arrogant and increasingly ruthless. Where once they had baulked at the idea of xenocide, now they didn't give it a second thought.

Their slave races had also developed. Both the Vorta and Jem H'adar had been genetically engineered to consider the Founders to be gods. Indeed, in their minds, the fact that the Founders could engineer them so simply proved the fact. Each species had a particular function. The Vorta were administrators and diplomats, scientists and commanders. They were the effective rulers of the Dominion whenever the Founders chose to withdraw, as was increasingly the case. The Jem H'adar on the other hand were warriors and soldiers. Their sole function was to fight and die for the Founders. Engineered to be immensely strong, resilient and aggressive, an individual Jem H'adar warrior was roughly the equal of a Klingon warrior. They thought nothing about launching suicide attacks on their enemies. A ship full of Jem H'adar warriors was just another missile to be expended as became apparent at first contact when a Jem H'adar fighter rammed the USS Odyssey despite the fact that it was withdrawing.

Whilst the inbuilt, fanatical belief in the Founders as gods was enough to maintain control of the Vorta, it was considered insufficient for the Jem H'adar. Hence they were engineered to require Ketracel White ('the White') as a neurotransmitter. As their bodies were incapable of making this substance, it had to be injected intravenously on an hourly basis. This gave the Dominion a second, brutal means of control. Should the Jem H'adar ever rebel, the White would simply be withheld. The last means of control of both the Vorta and Jem H'adar was through their reproduction. Neither species could breed naturally, rather they were cloned at a few specialised facilities, all of which (at least until rather late in the war) were located in the Gamma Quadrant. While this ensured that good levels of security could be maintained, it would eventually prove a fatal flaw in the power structure of the Dominion.

Militarily, the Dominion had few peers. They were able to mass produce ships and soldiers at astonishing rates. Those enemies they could not defeat with superior technology were defeated by superior numbers. Even when faced with one of its rare (until the rise of the Coalition at least) defeats, the Dominion would simply hunker down and step up production of ships and Jem H'adar. The previous victor would then inevitably be defeated next time they met. It took the choke point of the wormhole to alter this cruel fact.

Aiding in this strategy was the simple fact that Dominion ships were actually extremely basic. There were only two or three basic designs and each of these was uncompromisingly basic. The ship focussed primarily on offensive weaponry, secondarily on defences and only after these were optimised was any attempt made to make them comfortable for the crew. This design philosophy was followed to such an extent that unlike every other power then in existence, the bridge of the craft had no main viewer. Instead the ship's commander (and perhaps the 2nd in command) would have a personal HUD viewer which they would use to guide the ship.

Another factor aiding the Dominion was the simple fact that they were more technologically advanced than any of the Alpha Quadrant powers, at least at first contact. This became apparent very quickly when Starfleet shields proved ineffective against Dominion weapons in the first few encounters, although a counter was rapidly developed for this. The one major technological advantage that the Alpha Quadrant powers seemed to have was the cloaking device. However, this too would prove to be of less use against the Dominion as they were able to penetrate it far more easily than anticipated.

The Dominion then was a vastly stronger power than the Federation when they first encountered each other. It was however an insular power and would generally only engage with other powers when it had to. Indeed, had the Federation after that first terrible encounter kept to their own side of the wormhole then it is entirely likely that there would have been no war and the Federation would have blundered on as if they owned the Galaxy until some other force came along and destroyed them.

For all its strength however, the Dominion had one fatal flaw. The very structure that had provided its strength over all its centuries of existence could, if attacked correctly, bring the entire edifice tumbling down. And this is just what the Coalition would do.

In truth, none of this mattered to the Founders. The Dominion existed purely to provide them with security. As their own extinction loomed, they did nothing to put in place structures to preserve the Dominion after they were gone for in truth, they cared nothing for any solids, not even their utterly loyal servant races. These were just tools to be used and discarded. When the final collapse came it would be brutal, chaotic and bloody. The Gamma Quadrant would take centuries to recover. Indeed, it was only the with the arrival of the Pax Terra, carried with Coalition warships flying direct from the Alpha Quadrant rather than through the wormhole that the post-Dominion anarchy would finally come to an end.


	3. The build up to war

**Chapter 3: The build up to war**

" _Cardassia will be made whole. All that we have lost will be ours again. And anyone who stands in our way will be destroyed._ " - _Gul Dukat_

In the period between first contact with the Dominion in 2370 and the open outbreak of war at the end of 2373, there was a rapidly escalating cold war between the Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers (including the Cardassian Union and Romulan Empire, something that may seem surprising given subsequent events) and the Dominion. In large part this was due to the arrogant refusal by the Federation and its allies to halt exploration missions in Dominion territory, however the fear that the Founders had of solids, especially potentially powerful solids, also played a very large part in the escalating tensions.

At the time of first contact there were several Federation and Federation allied colonies close to the Gamma Quadrant end of the wormhole, the most notable of which was New Bajor. The Jem'Hadar attacked and destroyed these at the same time as first contact was made as the Dominion considered all territory in the Gamma Quadrant to belong to them, regardless of the extent to which they exercised active control. In many ways, these attacks were the true outbreak of war, but in each case a peace would be patched up after the clashes. This was typical of the Federation's approach to diplomacy and warfare for the century preceding the final conflict and it suited the Dominion's purposes. In fact, a common theme of modern counter-factual fiction is the question 'what if the Federation had gone to war over one of these clashes?' The general consensus amongst those interested in such things is that the Federation and other Alpha Quadrant powers would have ended up being thrown out of the Gamma Quadrant but would also have succeeded in preventing the Dominion establishing a foothold in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The end result would have been the continuation of the status quo from before first contact.

The ease with which the Dominion located and destroyed these colonies indicates what would later become apparent. The Dominion had been aware of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers for some time prior to first contact and had been actively collecting intelligence on them. What is unclear is whether they were aware of the Bajoran Wormhole prior to the discovery of it by Commander Benjamin Sisko. It is true that the Dominion had sent out 100 infant changelings to gather intelligence on the wider galaxy some time prior to the war. At least two of these, known as Odo and Laas ended up in the Alpha Quadrant many years prior to first contact. However, whether this was deliberate or accidental we will never know. What is known, is that very soon after formal first contact, the Dominion started sending out adult Founders to act as infiltrators. These Founders would act as destabilising forces within the Alpha Quadrant. They were so successful that they managed to precipitate war between the Federation and Klingon Empire who had been close allies for decades. However, not everything went the Dominion's way. The threat they posed precipitated an unprecedented diplomatic agreement between the Romulans and Federation. In exchange for the sharing of all intelligence on the Dominion, the Romulans agreed to the installation of a cloaking device on the brand new USS Defiant - a ship that Starfleet referred to euphemistically as an 'escort'. Technically this breached a small part of the Treaty of Algeron which banned the Federation from developing cloaking technology, but it was a small breach that both powers considered a one off and done for mutually beneficial reasons.

While the Federation used the intelligence gathered to try and prepare for the worse (or inevitable to the more 'realistic' officers), the use that the Romulans would put such intelligence to would become apparent when the Romulan Tal Shiar and Cardassian Obsidian Order launched a first strike against the Dominion. Their plan was to send a fleet of cloaked Cardassian and Romulan ships to the Founders home world, which had been discovered a short while previously by the Defiant, and then to launch an orbital bombardment against it that would exterminate the Founders. Whilst paling into insignificance when compared to the devastation that would be unleashed against their home worlds during the Dominion War, at the time, such an attack had never been seen in the Alpha Quadrant. The plan was bold and had the potential to nip the theat of the Dominion in the bud. Unfortunately for the Romulans and Cardassians, the Romulan commander was actually a changeling infiltrator. The entire undertaking had become a trap that the allied fleets were flying into. They only became aware that something was wrong when they began the bombardment of the Founders home world and it seemed to have no effect. They rapidly realised that false sensor readings were being induced that hid the fact that the planet had been abandoned. Before the fleet could retreat, a massive Dominion force pounced on them and proceeded to destroy them utterly, worse, the ships rapidly found that the Dominion could penetrate the Romulan cloaks with ease. The only ship that escaped the debacle was the USS Defiant which had been on a rescue mission at the time.

The effect of the debacle was felt most powerfully on Cardassia. The Obsidian Order had deployed the majority of its strength to the operation, and with its destruction was fatally undermined. Without the Order's constant vigilance, the Cardassian Central Command was unable to maintain control. It was rapidly overthrown and replaced with a civilian Detapa Council. Certain officers, most notably Gul Dukat, would defect to the new civilian government to maintain their careers. Had Dukat stayed loyal to Central Command and lost his power when it fell, history might have been very different.

These events would have massive repercussions throughout the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. The Klingon High Chancellor Gowron would conclude that the fall of the Cardassian Central Command could only have come about by a changeling take over. He was influenced into coming to this conclusion by General Martok, one of his most trusted advisors. Ironically, it would later become evident that the person that Gowron thought was Martok, was in actual fact a changeling infiltrator.

The Klingon response to the events on Cardassia was to launch a massive invasion. Expecting to be backed by their allies the Federation, they were angered when instead the Federation condemned the invasion. In retaliation the Klingon Empire withdrew from all agreements with the Federation. Tensions grew further when the USS Defiant rescued the Detapa Council from a Klingon attack. The Klingons followed the Defiant back to Deep Space 9 and launched a full scale assault on the station. The battle would prove to be the start of a full scale border war between the two powers. All that would be achieved in the end would be the loss of valuable ships and troops on both sides and their resultant weakening.

The Klingon war would serve to provide further proof as to the weakness of the Federation. The Klingons were able to maintain active battle fronts against both the Cardassians and Federation. Starfleet proved unable to retake ground seized by the Klingon forces and lost significant numbers of ships in the battles they fought. Still relying on large numbers of Excelsior, Miranda and even Constitution class vessels, designs that were over 100 years old, the Federation proved unable to stem the advance of the more numerous and more advanced Klingon ships. The Starfleet experience in these battles would prove an ominous foretaste as to what was to come.

Further problems were caused for the Federation by an attempted coup by Admiral Leyton in 2372 and a second Borg incursion in 2373. The Borg incursion especially showed that whilst Starfleet was better prepared to engage hostile powers than in the first incursion in 2367, they were still ill-prepared. However, the Borg invasion of 2373 would be the first battle of several new designs of starship that had been specifically designed to combat the Borg. These ship classes, not least the Sovereign class and Akira class, plus the already proven Defiant class would subsequently be important in the halting of the Dominion offensive in 2375.

It was no doubt the failure of Starfleet to halt the advance of the Klingons that led Gul Dukat to make his fateful decision to wed Cardassia's future to that of the Dominion. After the initial Klingon invasion of Cardassia, he had ended up fighting a one-man guerrilla war against the invaders whilst the civilian government tried desperately to appease the Klingons to no avail. It is not known when he first contacted the Dominion, however the negotiations bore fruit and by mid-2373 he had agreed that the Cardassian Union would join the Dominion - without the agreement of the Cardassian government it must be said.

This agreement would become apparent when a Dominion fleet exited the wormhole and headed to Cardassia - escorted by Gul Dukat. Shortly after returning to Cardassia, Dukat promised that he would restore all of Cardassia's lost territory within a short period. True to his word, the Klingons were rapidly driven out of Cardassian territory and retreated to Deep Space 9. Shortly thereafter, the Klingon Chancellor Gowron would re-sign the Khitomer Accords, re-establishing the Klingon-Federation alliance. With Dominion threatening to take DS9 and the Federation and Klingons massing their forces there, joined, rather surprisingly considering later events, by the Romulan fleet, it appeared war was imminent. However, it would subsequently transpire to be a trap designed to destroy the Alliance fleet by causing the Bajoran sun to go nova. This plan, despite the fact that it failed, would be a foretaste of things to come.

Despite the foiling of the trap, the presence of significant Dominion forces in the Alpha Quadrant changed the strategic situation significantly. Previously, any invasion of the Alliance powers would have required the Dominion transiting the wormhole and launching an immediate assault against a heavily fortified DS9. Realistically, such an attack would have resulted in the loss of the Dominion fleet with little to gain. However, now that the Dominion had a base of operations in the Alpha Quadrant, they were able to circumvent the chokepoint of the wormhole. The immediate effect of this was to allow them to send regular reinforcement convoys to Cardassia, the threat of war preventing the Alliance from intervening. In the longer term, it would allow the Dominion to destroy the Federation, even if they would ultimately fail to conquer the Alliance.

With the establishment of Dominion territory in the Alpha Quadrant, violence and border clashes escalated dramatically. Initially the Klingons and Marquis (a group of former Federation citizens turned freedom-fighters who sought to eject the Cardassians from their colonies) were the main targets of the Jem'Hadar forces. However, in the last months of 2373, the Federation lost several starships in clashes with the Dominion. Thus the initial battles of the Dominion War were in truth fought in the months preceding the formal start of hostilities.

If there was one front on which the Federation could be historically proud, it was on their ability to win their battles through diplomacy. In the last months of 2373, this strength collapsed rapidly, in no small part due to the inability of Starfleet to hold off the Federation's many foes. As tensions and violence steadily grew, the Dominion signed non-aggression pacts with numerous powers including the Romulans, Breen and Tholians. As a result, the Alliance became increasingly isolated. They were, in the words of Captain Benjamin Sisko of DS9, losing the peace. Perhaps the most surprising diplomatic coup by the Dominion was the signing of a non-aggression pact with Bajor, a planet that had previously been occupied by the Cardassians and that had subsequently developed very close relations with the Federation. Were it not for the intervention of Sisko, in his capacity as the Bajoran Emissary (an important figure in the Bajoran religion), it is unlikely that they would have signed such a pact. However, Sisko intervened to try and keep Bajor out of the fighting. Sadly, this attempt would be unsuccessful.

As 2373 drew to a close, the Federation was rapidly losing the peace. Power after power were signing non-aggression pacts with the Dominion leaving only the Klingons standing with their Federation allies. To make matters worse, the Dominion was sending regular troop convoys through the wormhole into Cardassian space. This rapid build-up was becoming a major threat to the Alliance. Hence, after much consideration, the Federation decided to mine the entrance to the wormhole.

Such a move was not taken lightly. Mining the entrance to wormhole would be a de facto declaration of war. Never the less, Starfleet proceeded to establish a blockade of the wormhole consisting of cloaked, self-replicating mines. This field would, it was hoped, be able to resist any attempt to dismantle it and allow Dominion reinforcements to transit the wormhole. Initially, it would succeed.

Inevitably, the Dominion detected the construction of the field. The Dominion attempt to destroy it before its completion and concurrent assault on DS9 would be the first (official) battle of the Dominion War. The battle would be considered a victory for the Dominion in that they captured DS9. However, in doing so they lost over 50 ships and were unsuccessful in preventing the minefield being activated. In addition, as the Dominion forces were assaulting DS9, a joint Klingon-Federation taskforce assaulted and destroyed the shipyards at Torros III. This victory would be one of the very few victories that the Alliance forces would enjoy during the war, and indeed it would be the only one where an Alliance force consisting of a traditional fleet would score a victory in an offensive battle. By the time the Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers were winning battles such as these regularly, it would be under the flag of the Coalition, not the Klingon-Federation Alliance.


	4. Defeat and retreat

A/N - Thank's for all the feedback. I'm glad everyone is liking the story so far.

 **Chapter 4 – Defeat and retreat**

" _The Federation is_ losing _this war. We can't sit by and do nothing._ " – Kira Nerys, Bajoran Liaison to Terok Nor/Deep Space 9

The early months of 2374 went poorly for the Federation-Klingon alliance. Despite the outright victory at Torros III and the strategic victory (although a tactical defeat) at Deep Space 9 at the very start of the war, the alliance was very soon on the retreat. During this period the Federation failed to win a single fleet battle. Those victories that were achieved were few and far between and were generally the result of either single ship actions or covert operations. It appeared that neither Starfleet, nor the Klingons could defeat the Dominion in a straight fight. Dominion forces advanced on all fronts. Not only were they taking outlying border regions, but the Dominion was able to approach core systems including Vulcan, Bolarus and even Earth. By the beginning of March 2374 it appeared that the Dominion was approaching a total victory and the Federation would soon be consigned to history.

One of the core problems faced by Starfleet at the start of the war was the lack of combat capable ships that it had available to fight the war with. These ships mainly fell into three categories. The first category consisted of ships of classes such as the Excelsior, Miranda and even Constitution classes. Whilst these had been designed for a more combat oriented mission than later classes, the designs were over 100 years old and even though they were regularly modernised, they were far from suitable for use on the modern battlefield, however the vast majority of all ships available to Starfleet at the beginning of the war were of these classes. The second category of ships consisted of the majority of classes designed and introduced during the 24th century. These included the famous Galaxy, Nebula and Ambassador classes. These classes were primarily designed for exploration, scientific or ambassadorial roles, with combat capabilities being treated as a distinctly secondary capability. These ship classes would go down in history as veritable pleasure-palaces where Starfleet officers and enlisted personnel would bring their families along on their missions. Equipped with the latest entertainment and replicator technology, they were the apotheosis of the 'bread and circuses' Federation ideal. Despite this, ships of the Galaxy-refit and Nebula-refit classes would go on to play a significant role in the early to mid war period. These refit classes would be stripped back to their hulls and rebuilt from the keel up as warships. Whilst not perfect, they would serve honourably in this role. The third category of ships available to Starfleet was also the smallest. These were ships that could truly be considered warships. The core of this group consisted of the Sovereign, Akira and Defiant classes (sometimes the Intrepid class is also included in this group). These ships could go toe to toe with any equivalent class in the Dominion fleet and expect to emerge victorious. These ships would make up the bulk of the Coalition fleets by the end of the war, although the Sovereign classes position as battleship and command centre would be displaced by the later Gloriana class.

These problems are aptly demonstrated when you look at Starfleet's casualty figures for these first months of warfare. At the start of the war, Starfleet had around 2,000 'combat capable' starships. In the first 3 months of the war, Starfleet lost over 600 vessels – this amounts to more than 30% of it's prewar strength. These losses fell disproportionately on the first category of ships. Losses were also high amongst the second category unless they had undergone 'war refits'. However losses were much lower amongst the third category. These had actually only suffered 5% losses – and these generally occurred when the ship had an inexperienced crew or they were overwhelmed by sheer numbers. In fact, by March 2374, the overall number of true warships (ie ships of the third category, or ships of the second category that had undergone war refits) available to Starfleet was actually higher than at the start of the war! Despite this glimmer of hope however, morale amongst both Federation and Klingon crews was plummeting. Starfleet especially was experiencing a recruitment crisis. There just weren't enough citizens prepared to volunteer to go to war. It was under these circumstances that a few politicians within the United Earth government began to suggest that the solution was perhaps an idea that was considered obsolete 400 years previously, conscription. At this stage it was dismissed as unnecessary. However, as the news regarding the war went from bad to worse, this would change.

It is perhaps understandable considering the dire situation that the Federation found itself in by May 2374 that an offensive such as Operation Return would be considered. The Operation was planned by Captain Benjamin Sisko, former Commanding Officer of Deep Space 9 and the USS Defiant. His proposal was to withdraw significant proportions of the remaining fleet and, combined with a force of Klingon ships retake station Deep Space 9 (known as Terok Nor to the Dominion). Many senior and influential voices, both Klingon and Federation argued strongly against it. The chief concern voiced was that by redeploying so many units away from crucial battles within the Federation's core sectors, they would leave worlds such as Vulcan, Tellar or Earth open to conquest. Such a concern was reasonable given the successes the Dominion was already having in the war, however, Sisko successfully argued, and would in fact be proven correct by subsequent events, that the Dominion would be forced to counter the offensive directly and not just take the opportunity to seize further territory. This, he argued, was due to the crucial strategic importance of Deep Space 9. Put bluntly, whoever controlled DS9, would control the Bajoran wormhole and from that control came the ability to allow or deny the major reinforcement and resupply of Dominion forces within the Alpha and Beta Quadrants.

The plan was extremely bold. By concentrating nearly 50% of Starfleet's remaining forces in one place it posed the very real (and subsequently realised) risk that defeat would spell the end of the Federation. However, in considering the plan and subsequent battle, it should also be noted the Federation had a history of winning it's wars by beating it's enemies in a single, decisive engagement. With this in mind, it is perhaps not unsurprising that Starfleet would again look to win a war with a decisive engagement. Sadly, things would turn out very differently to the result that was hoped for.


	5. Operation Return

**Chapter 5 – Operation Return**

 _"Fortune favours the bold" – words spoken by Captain Benjamin Sisko prior to the Third Battle of Deep Space 9, they would proven mistaken._

Operation Return – the bid to retake Deep Space 9 and hence the Alpha Quadrant end of the Bajoran wormhole from the Dominion, started to go wrong before it had even began. The original plan had called for nearly 700 Starfleet vessels – just under 50% of remaining Federation forces, plus significant Klingon forces to assault and capture Deep Space 9. Unfortunately, the Klingons weren't so keen on the plan. The Arch-chancellor Gowron personally refused to allow Klingon forces to take part in the offensive. In order to persuade him of the benefits of the plan, Commander Worf of Starfleet and General Martok of the KDF left to speak to him. It was an inauspicious start.

The situation worsened for Starfleet when news from the nascent Second Bajoran Resistance reached Captain Sisko, the man primarily responsible for the planning and leadership of Operation Return, that the Dominion had finally been able to determine a means to disable the minefield that prevented them from bringing substantial reinforcements in from the Gamma Quadrant. Furthermore, the message from the group, which included both Sisko's son and his former 2nd in command Major Kira Nerys, made it clear that the Dominion expected to be able to bring down the minefield within a week. With this information, it became clear that time had ran out for Starfleet. Hence, without any word on whether or not Klingon reinforcements would be available and before they were able to fully concentrate the intended force, the Starfleet taskforce, commanded by Sisko himself, set out from Starbase 375 to retake DS9.

Unfortunately for all those on the Starfleet vessels, the redeployment of these forces did not go unnoticed by the Dominion. It did not take long to work out that the massive Federation fleet now bearing down on DS9 intended to prevent them taking down the minefield. As such the Gul Dukat, in overall command of the Dominion forces, withdrew over 1,200 ships from the front lines and redeployed them to face the Federation offensive. This force outnumbered the fleet assigned to Sisko's command by more than 2 to 1. The stage was set for one of the largest battles of the early stages of the Dominion War. By the time the battle was over, more than 2,000 ships on all sides would have been involved.

The battle itself started out with the opposing forces trying to trick their enemies into weakening their positions. In truth, neither side fell for the others deception; however Sisko recognised that the Dominion trap was also an opportunity for Starfleet. As such he led a general charge on the Dominion lines by the Federation fleet. Using his Galaxy-refit class battlecruisers as a shield, Sisko attempted to have his destroyer class vessels, including his own USS Defiant punch through Dominion lines in order to make for DS9. The result was a general close quarter melee. From this point onwards, the battle pitted the excellent manoeuvrability of the Starfleet vessels against the greater durability of the Dominion ones. The Federation fleet gave a very good account for itself during this phase of the battle. Operating in three ship formations, the destroyers would target far larger Dominion ships and did considerable damage. However, the Federation was fighting on the wrong end of 2-to-1 odds. Things began to become unstuck for Starfleet when the Dominion was able to destroy the USS Defiant and kill everyone on it, not least, Sisko himself.

The death of Sisko threw the Federation fleet into disarray at a critical point in the battle. Order was restored when the Captain of the USS Venture took command of the fleet and with the belated arrival of Klingon reinforcements. Indeed, the shock of a sudden attack by decloaking Klingon ships on the Dominion's right flank allowed the hard pressed Federation forces who by this point had already lost over 350 ships, to pull back and reform their lines. However, the situation now took yet another turn for the worse for the Federation when terrible news arrived from DS9.

The news was the worst that could be imagined. The Dominion had succeeded in taking down the minefield that blockaded the wormhole entrance. Even as the Klingons attacked the Dominion flank and Starfleet attempted to reorganise itself after Sisko's death, the first wave of around 3,000 Dominion ships was exiting the Bajoran wormhole and setting course for the battle. It would later emerge that Major Kira's resistance cell had attempted to prevent the dismantling of the minefield by sabotaging DS9 and, whilst the sabotage technically succeeded, they were too late. They would pay for this with their lives.

And so it was that the now joint Federation-Klingon fleet tried to reorientate their lines to take on this new threat. Retreat would no doubt have been the better option, however with the original Dominion fleet still engaging them and with more enemy vessels on the way, they were unable to disengage and retreat without risking every single remaining ship. However, as soon as it became apparent how many enemy ships were approaching, the Alliance fleet began what was intended as an orderly withdrawal. It would turn into a rout. Worse, the incoming Dominion fleet would follow the rapidly collapsing Alliance fleet to Starbase 375 which was destroyed in the aftermath of the battle. It was only after this that Ducat would call the pursuit off.

The cost to the Federation-Klingon alliance of the failure of Operation Return was nothing short of devastating. Of the 603 ships that set out from Starbase 375, only 73 would return to Federation lines, and Starbase 375 itself would be lost. The Klingons likewise lost over 200 vessels in the battle. These losses eviscerated Starfleet which would have dramatic consequences in the months ahead. Starfleet had now lost over 50% of it's combat capable capacity. True, new ships were being launched, and these ships were more advanced than those that were destroyed but there weren't enough of these to make up for the losses being sustained.

The Dominion also lost significant numbers of ships. In fact, they lost more than the Alliance did. However, the Dominion could afford these losses where as the Alliance couldn't. The defeat of Operation Return would be the start of the second phase of the war which would result in the collapse of both the Federation and the Klingon Empire.


	6. Consequences of Defeat

**Chapter 6: Consequences of Defeat**

 _"_ _Sisko was the only man on either side who could lose the war in an afternoon – and he did" – Former Vice Admiral Leyton after hearing of the defeat of Operation Return_

Operation Return, or Sisko's Folly as it would be remembered, was the most catastrophic defeat in the history of both the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire. The loss of over 500 ships in a single battle, combined with the loss of over 600 vessels in the war so far left Starfleet with less than half it's pre-war strength. Worse was the loss of personnel. By the end of May 2374 Starfleet was struggling to find experienced officers to command Starships. Furthermore, the loss of the forward operating base at Starbase 375 significantly reduced the Federation's ability to project power. The Klingon Empire was in a similar position. Whilst they had been able to withdraw their forces from the battle before losing the number that Starfleet did, they still lost over 200 vessels. Neither the Klingon Defence Forces, nor Starfleet would now be able to launch any offensive actions.

The situation would have been dire for the Allies even if the Dominion hadn't have received significant additional forces through the wormhole. As things stood however, Dominion forces had received more than 3,000 additional ships as reinforcements once the minefield blocking access to the Bajoran wormhole was destroyed. Furthermore the Dominion was now able to freely reinforce and resupply it's force's in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants at will.

The immediate reaction of Starfleet Command when news of the defeat came through was one of shocked paralysis. For several crucial hours, the Admirals were unable to truly comprehend the scale of the disaster that had befallen their forces. It took the intervention of a staff officer, one Lieutenant-Commander (formerly Vice Admiral) Leyton, to start responding. Leyton, the same Leyton who had tried to seize control of the Federation in a coup just 3 years previously, quickly realised that the very future of the Federation was now at risk. As such he began to redeploy what forces Starfleet had left to defend what they could. Many outlying sectors were abandoned as Starfleet concentrated it's remaining Starships in the core systems.

The reaction of the worlds in these sectors which were often newer Federation members was varied. Many were quietly resigned to their fate's, these worlds would be progressively conquered by the newly arrived Jem'Hadar forces over the following months. A significant minority would declare independence from the UFP and then arrange peace treaties with the Dominion. These worlds would remain nominally independent but would in effect become Dominion protectorates. A few however sort to fight to the bitter end against the Dominion. Without fail, these worlds were utterly devastated, many of them being the victims of biogenic weapons.

The reaction of the Federation Government to these series of events was total paralysis. Unable to comprehend what was happening, the Federation President quietly allowed Starfleet Command (in actual fact, junior staff officers such as Leyton) to abandon large tracts of the Federation. It was clear very quickly that the Federation Council didn't know how to react to events. They were still clinging to the idea that they could survive the war without sacrificing their luxurious lives. Despite the fact that Starfleet was running out of ships they weren't prepared to institute full war production. Despite the fact that Starfleet was running out of personnel, they weren't prepared to institute a recruitment drive, let alone any more drastic measures. It was the belief of most of the politicians and Admirals (who were so alike it would have been difficult to tell the difference were it not for the uniforms the Admirals wore) that all they need do was to persuade a powerful entity such as an Organian, Bajoran Prophet or even a member of the Q Continuum to intercede on the Federation's behalf and all would go back to how it was. Such intervention had happened in the past and had saved the Federation from disaster on more than one occasion. It would not happen now.

Whilst Federation politicians and Admirals were busy succumbing to defeatism or chasing pipedreams, it was the Prime Minister of United Earth (UE), one William Soames, who would rally the people of the Federation's Capital World. Like his famous ancestor, over 4 centuries earlier, he would rally the people of Earth for the coming battle. Prior to Operation Return, increasing number of voices had been raised within UE calling for full conversion of UE's economy to a war setting and the institution of conscription. The defeat allowed Soames to silence those voices that wanted to keep Earth as it was. Furthermore, he was able to use clauses within the Federation Charter that allowed member worlds to maintain defence forces to re-establish an independent Earth military. A bare 5 days after Operation Returns brutal defeat, UE instituted conscription of all able-bodies adults not required in essential industries – which was a very short list indeed. In addition, rationing was introduced and the energy and replicators freed up by this was used to significantly increase ship production. It would take some time for all of this to feed through, but eventually these measures would allow the Sol System to reconstitute a full fleet of around 100 vessels in just one month. On hearing of these measures, Vulcan, Andor and Tellar followed suit. These seeds of final victory were sown in these dark days.

The new Earth Military consisted of three elements. The United Earth Navy (UEN) was responsible for all space based combat, the United Earth Army (UEA) was responsible for planet based combat whether on land, sea or in the air, plus planetary defence satellites. The third component was the Earth Marine Corps (EMC). This service provided security onboard ships plus provided the first forces that would land on a planet in a contested invasion. Initially the UEA and EMC would be armed in exactly the same way as the Starfleet Security forces they would come to replace. However, as time passed, they would start to introduce significantly improved weapons and kit, not least power-armour, armoured combat vehicles and artillery.

The UEN initially consisted of a few patrol ships that UE government had in service. However, it would rapidly expand to become a potent system defence force. The ship classes that would initially be commissioned by UEN would be Terra variants of the Defiant and Saber classes. The Terra variants were in essence up-armoured versions of the standard classes. As the immediate emergency passed, Akira and Sovereign class vessels would also be added to the fleet's roster. The standard fleet operated by UEN would become the following:

4 squadrons of 3 battlecruisers of the Sovereign Class

6 squadrons of 3 heavy cruisers of the Akira Class

6 squadrons of 6 destroyers of the Defiant Class

And 6 squadrons of 6 frigates of the Saber class

All told, a fleet would consist of 102 ships

It was around this time that Leyton, now an Admiral in UEN after resigning in disgust at Starfleet's Command inability to react to the disaster of Operation Return, came across a design for a Battleship that one starship designer had put together when his CO wasn't looking. This Battleship was over 2km long and was as heavily armed as Deep Space 9 had been prior to it's fall. It was extremely heavily armoured and also incorporated regenerative shielding that looked suspiciously like that used by the Borg. Leyton ordered that this ship be brought into production as quickly as possible. It would become the Gloriana Class.


	7. Interlude 1: Who were Sisko and Leyton?

**Interlude 1: Who were Benjamin Sisko and James Leyton?**

Two of the most influential individuals within Starfleet in the lead up to and initial phase of the Dominion War were Benjamin Sisko and James Leyton. Much has been written about these two controversial figures in the centuries since the war ended. They are both viewed as villains by some and held responsible for the fall of the old Federation. Others view them as heroes who stood and fought when others would have bent their knee. Indeed, Sisko is even awarded messianic status within the Religion of the Prophets. So who were these two individuals?

 **Rear Admiral James Leyton**

Of the two, Leyton perhaps most deserves his controversial reputation. Leyton was the man responsible for the only known attempted coup d'etat in the history of the Federation. He was also the man who successfully defended the Sol System for nearly a year, before beginning the counter-offensive which would lead to the long reconquest of the Alpha Quadrant

Leyton was born on Earth and attended Starfleet Academy. After graduation he chose the Command division of Starfleet and progressed up the ranks until he took command of the USS Okinawa. His career up to this point was unremarkable. It was during the Federation-Tzenkethi War that he started to stand out. On several occasions he took command of Starfleet task-forces containing up to 10 starships and won several victories. He showed he was an adept fleet commander with a good instinct for both strategy and tactics. Something he would later become famous for It was also during this period that Benjamin Sisko, then a Lieutenant-Commander would be his Executive Officer.

After the war Leyton was promoted to Rear-Admiral and later Vice-Admiral. Serving as Starfleet Chief of Operations, he became increasingly concerned with the threat posed by the Dominion. Initially he tried to get the Federation Council and Starfleet to take a more militaristic approach to dealing with the threat, arguing for an expansion of the fleet, especially the incorporation of the warship classes designed after Wolf 359, and the imposition of tighter security measures. He was refused each time, invariably because to take the measures he advocated would threaten utopia. Eventually, despairing of the politicians willingness to do what was necessary, Leyton began to plan a takeover.

The events of the coup attempt are well known. Leyton failed to ensure that he had sufficient support within Starfleet to enable him to successfully take power. Forced to resign and subsequently imprisoned in a penal colony in New Zealand, his career seemed to be over.

However, events intervened. With the outbreak of war and the succession of defeats suffered by Starfleet, it rapidly became apparent that new ideas were needed. Being one of the few former or current Starfleet officers with an understanding of strategy and tactics, Leyton was paroled and brought back into the service at the much reduced rank of Lieutenant-Commander and assigned to Starfleet Command as a staff officer. From this position he witnessed the immediate aftermath of his former Executive Officer's failure. As the Admirals around him froze, Leyton realised that with the losses incurred drastic steps had to be taken. Therefore, he ordered the withdrawal of the majority of what was left of Starfleet to the core sectors around Earth.

The attempted coup and the apparent betrayal of so many Federation worlds all but guaranteed his infamous reputation.

The continuing paralysis of Starfleet Command and the Federation Council in the face of overwhelming Dominion advances disgusted him. Eventually he resigned his commission and approached Prime Minister Soames to see whether he could get a position in the new Earth Navy. Jumping at the chance to have such an experienced fleet commander, Soames agreed to give him a commission and immediately promoted him back to Admiral. In this position he would lead the UEN the and subsequently the Coalition Navy (CN) through the multiple battles within the Sol system and the breakout that followed. Eventually he would die during the Relief of Vulcan. It is for his later service in the UEN and CN that he is remembered as a hero by many.

 **Captain Benjamin Sisko**

Leyton's former Executive Officer (XO), Benjamin Sisko, is perhaps best remembered as the man who planned and led Operation Return, known these days as 'Sisko's Folly', the man who's hubris led him into a defeat so terrible that it caused the collapse of the Federation. Unless of course you follow the Religion of the Prophets. To those who do he is the Emissary of the Prophets. A messianic figure who is prophesied to return one day to free Bajor and the Alpha Quadrant in their darkest hour.

Who was the real man behind these legends? Like Leyton, Sisko was born on Earth and entered Starfleet Academy. Like Leyton he entered the Command Division. He would progress through the ranks until he served under Leyton as XO on the Okinawa. He would then be promoted to full Commander and take the position of XO on the USS Saratoga. Part of the fleet that was destroyed at the Battle of Wolf 359 by the Borg, Sisko would escape the Saratoga with his young son Jake but without his wife Jennifer.

Subsequent to the battle he would take command of the newly renamed Deep Space 9 upon the recommendation of Leyton. It was during his posting here that he would truly enter the history books. Early on in the posting, he discovered the Bajoran wormhole which was subsequently declared to be the Celestial Temple of the Prophets by the Bajoran Kai which made Sisko the Emissary of the Prophets. Whilst at first refusing to encourage this belief, there is evidence that he slowly came to believe that he was the Emissary. Perhaps this belief is what made him act in an increasingly rash manner as the years progressed. The fact is, it was on Sisko's word that Bajor declined to join the Federation in 2373 and then signed a non-aggression pact with the Dominion just before the outbreak of war. It was Sisko who persuaded Starfleet to mine the entrance to the wormhole and it was Sisko who planned and executed Operation Return.

Perhaps most controversial is the manner of Sisko's death. Sisko led Operation Return from the USS Defiant. When the ship was destroyed, he was presumed killed with all hands. When the battlefield was retaken by Coalition forces in 2376, many of the bodies of those who died were found still floating in space, including the majority of the crew of the Defiant. One notable exception was Sisko. His body was no where to be found. Despite there being many explanations as to why that was, not least the distinct possibility that his body was completely immolated by the explosion that destroyed the Defiant, many believers in the Prophets maintain that they rescued him that day, and that they are waiting to return him to Bajor when he is most needed.


	8. Bajor during the early war

**Chapter 7: Bajor during the early war**

 _"Evil must be opposed" – Vedek Yassim_

Bajor. A world that had suffered war and occupation, death and destruction on a scale unknown to most of the Federation of 2373. In the months leading up to the outbreak of the Dominion War, Bajor was still recovering from the effects of 50 years of Cardassian occupation. As war clouds gathered, Bajor initially moved to not only stand alongside the Federation, but also join it. Ultimately, it was the intervention of Sisko on two separate occasions, speaking in his capacity as Emissary of the Prophets that not only prevented Bajor joining the Federation, but resulted in them signing a non-aggression pact with the Dominion. Sisko justified his actions to his superiors by pointing out that his original mission on DS9 had been, and still was, to help Bajor recover from the occupation. With war looming, it was apparent that Starfleet could not defend Bajor. Therefore, the only way to ensure that Bajor was protected from devastation was to ensure that it was kept out of the fighting. Unfortunately, Sisko failed to achieve this.

For the initial months of the war however, Bajor was successfully kept out of the war. The Dominion respected it's treaty with Bajor and ensured the Cardassians did likewise. With Bajor now cut off from trade with the Federation, the Dominion stepped in to help ease the economic crisis that was developing, even sending unarmed facilitators to Bajor to help the Provisional Government solve some of the problems it faced. To an outsider, it appeared that the Federation had simply been replaced with the Dominion. Bajor still retained nominal sovereignty over not just itself, but also DS9, now renamed Terok Nor. However things were not as they seemed.

Progressively, Bajoran officers and enlisted personnel were excluded from important positions on Terok Nor. Where under the Federation, the Bajoran Liaison to the station was also the station's second in command, now Major Kira ranked after not only the Vorta Weyoun, but also after Gul Dukat. All important security matters were now handled by Jem'Hadar or Cardassian troops. In short, the Dominion didn't trust the Bajorans, especially those who had worked with Starfleet. On the Bajoran side, the Dominion presence and the manner in which they acted was starting to feel a lot like the initial stages of the occupation. This impression was exasperated by the Dominion restoring the station's name to what it had been during the occupation and placing Gul Dukat – the last commander of the occupation forces in command.

At first, the feelings of discontent were simply that, feelings. However, the dramatic protest-suicide of Vedek Yassim would crystallise these feelings. Several of those who witnessed his suicide decided that they could no longer stand by whilst the Federation lost the war. A small but diverse group consisting of Benjamin Sisko's son, Jake and a Ferengi, Rom and his Bajoran wife joined with Major Kira Nerys to form the first cell of the renewed Bajoran Resistance.

Their first actions were relatively minor. They provoked a brawl between the Jem'Hadar and Cardassians and spread discontent. However, when they discovered that the Dominion had discovered a way to bring down the minefield, they planned their first major action. It was the action that would set Bajor alight. Their plan was twofold. Firstly, they sought to get word to Starfleet of their discovery. In this they were successful, and it would be their intelligence that would cause Starfleet to launch Operation Return before all the necessary forces were in place. The second part of their plan involved sabotaging the equipment that was required for the Dominion to carry out the mine clearance. Unfortunately, the second part of the plan did not succeed. Rom was caught whilst attempting to disable the equipment and as a result was imprisoned pending trial and execution (the verdict being predetermined). The rest of the Kira's cell was then quickly apprehended by Dominion forces on the station. What happened next isn't exactly clear. What is known is that as Operation Return was taking place, the Dominion decided to execute the entire cell without trial or reference to the Bajoran Government.

That simple act is what started the protests. By executing the Bajoran Liaison to Terok Nor (which was still technically sovereign Bajoran Territory) without trial, the entire facade that Bajor was anything other than a vassal of the Dominion came crashing down. When word broke that alongside Kira, the son of the Emissary was also executed, the protests grew to unmanageable levels. When word of the defeat of Operation Return and the death of the Emissary himself broke, the protests turned into rioting. The Bajoran Provisional Government proved completely unable to contain these protests.

With Dominion Facilitators and facilities under attack by the rioters, the Dominion demanded that the Provisional Government take all necessary steps, including use of lethal force, to contain the rioters. At first, the Provisional Government attempted to comply, knowing full well what the results would be if they did not. However it quickly became apparent that the Militia wasn't prepared to follow the orders of the Government. Many of it's personnel had been resistance fighters during the occupation and they tended to agree with what Major Kira had tried to do on Terok Nor. Furthermore, they saw themselves as the protectors of the Bajoran people, not the oppressors. Virtually to a man they refused orders to fire on the crowds.

With the Bajoran Militia refusing to follow orders, the Provisional Government's hands were tied. Unable to control their people anymore they were left with 3 options. Sit powerlessly by and do nothing, request aid from the Dominion and become collaborators or side with the people and effectively declare war on the Dominion.

As the Provisional Government vacillated, the Dominion Command on Terok Nor decided to act. With the agreement of the Founder who was present on the station and the enthusiastic encouragement of Gul Dukat, Weyoun ordered the Jem'Hadar to land on Bajor, crush all opposition and put in place a more pliant ruling body.

With virtually no space forces, Bajor stood no chance of defending itself. However the Militia's origins as a resistance movement now came into play. As the Jem'Hadar landed, the Militia dispersed into the hills and country and began to fight a guerrilla war against the Dominion. The Second Occupation had begun


	9. Dominion Offensives: The Battle of Cait

**Chapter 8: Dominion offensives: The Battle of Cait**

 _"_ _Carrier vessels were considered obsolete and pointless in space combat – until the Cait proved otherwise" – Retired Admiral Jean-Luc Picard, speaking from his family vineyard after the war_

With the defeat of Sisko's Folly, the strategic situation for the Federation and Klingons was catastrophic. Starfleet now had less than half it's pre-war strength and despite the fact that the number of vessels that could be considered as modern combat vessels had actually increased, there were now insufficient forces to defend what was left of the Federation. The Klingons, whilst on the surface being better off were actually in a far worse position. They were at some 60% of their pre-war strength; however, their economy had existed on a war setting for decades. There was no slack left in the system to begin the mass-production of new ships as there was in the Federation. Worse, the Klingons were facing major personnel problems. With the vast majority of Klingons wanting to partake in the 'glorious battles' of the war, increasing numbers of essential workers were becoming warriors. The end result was that Klingon shipbuilding actually decreased between the start of the war in December 2373 and Sisko's Folly in May 2374.

It was in this situation that the Dominion received massive reinforcements. In the days after the wormhole was taken down, some 4,000 – 5,000 Jem'Hadar vessels of all classes entered the Alpha Quadrant. When combined with the Jem,'Hadar forces already present and the remaining Cardassian fleet, the Dominion now possessed an overwhelming force. With Starfleet and the KDF desperately trying to pull their forces back to defend the cores of the Federation and Klingon Empires, the speed of the Dominion advance was slowed more by the vast size of the Federation more than the last stands made at various points to slow them. It was during this period that the Battle of Cait took place.

The Battle of Cait is significant not because it was a victory for the Federation, it wasn't, nor because Cait was a particularly significant Federation member. Rather it's significant due to the resistance that the Caitian's put up in the face of the Jem'Hadar onslaught and what this meant for the future of space combat. The battle would take place between composite forces led by Captain Ramirez of the Nebula class USS Monitor and a Dominion assault fleet containing 30 Jem'Hadar vessels. Along with the Monitor, his force would consist of 2 Excelsior class vessels, the USS Intrepid and significantly, 5 Caitian Fleet Carriers. These vessels were the entirety of the Caitian Defence forces that still existed despite Cait being a member of the Federation. They were old – indeed they were considered obsolete during Kirk's first 5 year mission more than 100 years previously. However, they had been kept in service for tradition's sake. Their armament consisted of phase cannons and torpedo launchers that hadn't been upgraded since the vessels were launched. However, their main offensive weapons were actually the 30 strike fighters that each ship carried. These were significantly more advanced than the ships they were berthed on and had a similar armament to a Danube class runabout. They would prove their worth in the battle to come.

The Jem'Hadar attacked in a typically headlong manner. Ramirez understandably held his carriers back given that they weren't well protected. He had in actual fact been planning to order them to ferry civilians to safety however the Dominion assault came before he was able to do this. The initial attack wave cost the small Federation force both of their Excelsior class vessels. By this stage in the war, the Excelsior class, along with ships of a similar vintage had proven to be death traps. Despite this, both Starfleet and individual Federation worlds kept bringing every single vessel they could into battle worthy (or at least, what they believed was battle worthy) condition. The results were always the same. The ships would be engaged and destroyed by the more advanced Dominion forces. This pattern began to be played out in the Cait system. With both of the Excelsior's destroyed, the Intrepid and Monitor found themselves surrounded and vastly outgunned. It was at this point the carriers made their presence felt. A swarm of some 120 Caitian strike fighters attacked the Dominion fleet. Whilst individually each fighter was no match for the Jem'Hadar vessels, 120 of them were something very different. The Jem'Hadar started to take significant losses and indeed had to call for reinforcement. The Monitor and Intrepid meanwhile were able to extricate themselves from the situation they found themselves in, covered by the strike fighters. The entire Federation force then withdrew back to the inner system.

The first phase of the battle was in many ways a Federation victory. The Federation had lost two starships with another 2 seriously damaged plus 53 fighters. However the Dominion fleet had lost 17 vessels to a combination of attacks by strike fighters and the tenacious resistance of the starships. It was immediately apparent that the Dominion didn't know how to handle swarming strike fighters. Ramirez was able to us a burst transmission to inform Starfleet of what had happened. Meanwhile, the surviving 13 Jem'Hadar vessels were reinforced by more than 60 Cardassian vessels. This was a force that Ramirez could not hope to defeat. Realising this, he ordered one of his carriers to make a break for Federation lines to take word of the battle to Starfleet as it was unclear as to whether or not the burst transmission had got through Dominion jamming. Meanwhile, the remaining vessels would cover it's retreat.

The resultant second phase lasted no more than an hour. The Jem'Hadar and Cardassian forces would attempt to use their smaller attack craft to combat the Federation strike fighters whilst their battleships moved to engage the 2 remaining starships and the carriers. The Federation taskforce fought hard but were overwhelmed through sheer numbers. Every single ship and fighter was lost. However, all the remaining Jem'Hadar vessels and some 11 Cardassian ships were destroyed in the battle. With all their remaining space forces destroyed, Cait had no choice but to surrender. They were in actual fact lucky that the Jem'Hadar ships had all been destroyed. Had any survived the battle it would have been probable that they would have exterminated all higher life on the planet via orbital bombardment. The Cardassians however chose instead to lord it over the Cait and rub their noses in their defeat. As such, the Caitian's would survive.

At Starfleet Command, the battle was seen as another nail in their coffin. A sense of defeatism had set in and no one was able to take any positives from the battle. The same could not be said for the new UEN. The senior officers of the Navy, not least Admiral Leyton realised that the Dominion had in actual fact nearly lost the battle. They'd only won because they were able to bring in reinforcements whilst the Federation could not. It was also realised that the reason for this was the effect the presence of carrier craft had on the battle. Orders rapidly went out for the conversion of ships to take on the carrier role. However, it became clear that there were no ships currently in service that could really take on the role. On the other hand it was pointed out that the design of the Gloriana class lent itself to being modified for that role. With the agreement of all senior officers therefore, a requirement was issued for a new warship design, based upon the Gloriana class that would fulfil the carrier role. This was the genesis of the Cait class fleet carrier. This design would be further modified to become the Liberator class assault carrier.


	10. The Fall of Betazed

**Chapter 9: The Fall of Betazed**

 _"_ _When Betazed fell, I knew it was over. We had poured everything we could into that battle. We were left with barely enough to protect Sector 001 after that" – Former Federation President Jaresh-Inyo, speaking after the war_

Whilst not a founding member of the Federation, Betazed was nonetheless a major core world ranking alongside Tellar and Andor in importance. Unsurprisingly then, in the autumn of 2374 Starfleet made a major effort to hold the system. Concentrating 200 vessels under the operational command of Admiral Odan of the 10th fleet, Starfleet planned to make it's first major stand since the failure of Operation Return. It was widely recognised as a gamble. In order to achieve the concentration that was believed necessary to hold the system, major fleet units were withdrawn from the Tellar, Andor and Sol systems. As a result, Sol was left with only 30 starships (excluding the rapidly growing UEN) whilst Tellar was left with 47. However, by this point, Starfleet's numbers were starting to recover as war production measures started taking affect throughout the core worlds. With production focussed on small, powerful vessels such as the Defiant class which required far fewer crew than previous types, Starfleet was starting to regain it's strength. However, this increased strength would leave Starfleet Command with an overly optimistic view of their position.

Nevertheless, Betazed's government had begun fortifying their world shortly after Operation Return. They primarily focused on preparing orbital defence platforms, to be protected by fighter craft similar to those use by the Caitians. Furthermore, they also began to train 'stay behind units' that would be ready to continue the battle should (what the Betazoid government believed to be) the worse happen. Thus, on the eve of the Battle of Betazed, Federation forces in the Betazed system consisted of a 200 starships of various classes plus the Betazoid defence platforms and fighters.

The Dominion by contrast was in the ascendant. By the beginning of September, 2374, Dominion forces occupied some 40% of the Federation and 30% of the Klingon Empire. With most Klingon and Federation forces now concentrated in their core systems, it was apparent that they could take the majority of the remainder of their enemies' territory with little difficulty. It was in this environment that the Dominion high command chose to begin their assault against the core worlds of their two foes. The first targets in the Federation would be Betazed and Tellar. Prior to the start of the offensive, both the Tellarite and Betazoid governments received demands of surrender. Both governments refused. As a result, the Dominion begun it's offensive by throwing a first wave of 500 vessels at the Betazed system with a further operational reserve of 100 vessels should they be required.

The initial engagements went well for Starfleet. Making use of asteroid belts in the outer system, Destroyer class vessels would launch hit and run attacks in the Dominion fleet and then retreat behind screens of Galaxy and Sovereign class battle cruisers when the Jem'Hadar and Cardassians tried to pursue them. These engagements carried on for several days and caused significant damage to the Dominion fleet whilst taking little in return. Finally the Dominion decided to hurl their battleships at the main Starfleet battle line. Whilst this was happening, the Jem'Hadar attack fighters would hunt down and destroy the Federation Destroyer squadrons. Had the two sides had reasonably equal numbers this approach would not have worked, however, Starfleet was still outnumbered 2 to 1 despite the damage that had been done already. As such, when the hammer fell, the Federation battle line cracked.

With the breaking of the line, the Dominion forces were able to bring their superior numbers to bear. In the course of a few hours, Starfleet lost 60% of it's forces. With no options left, Starfleet once again retreated. However, instead of abandoning the system, Admiral Odan chose to withdraw his remaining ships to the orbit of Betazed. Now joined by the Betazoid defence platforms and fighters, he prepared to fight to the last to protect this important world and allow as many civilians as possible to escape.

The Dominion meanwhile had already lost over half their fleet. Such losses were significant even for the Jem'Hadar. As such, they called for their reserve. The 30 minutes that it took for the reserve to arrive and the assault to begin allowed a further 100,000 Betazoids, including Lwaxana Troi, to escape their worlds fate. These refugees would play a crucial role in the early years of the Coalition.

Once the Jem'Hadar reserves arrived, the final assault on Betazed began. Firing barrages of photon torpedoes into the defenders, the Dominion fleet sort to overwhelm Starfleet with sheer firepower. Many of these torpedoes were fired without proper targets being identified and most of these missed their marks, only to impact on the planet below. This was the beginning of Betazed's suffering. As the battle turned into a close quarter melee within the planet's upper atmosphere, more and more Federation ships were destroyed. The Defence platforms also gave a good account for themselves, taking out 97 Jem'Hadar and Cardassian vessels alone. The fighters also fought well, although after the experience of Cait, the Dominion was more able to counter them. Still they were able to destroy many of the smaller Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships.

Despite these successes, the outcome was inevitable. The Federation and Betazoid forces were overwhelmed. With the destruction of the last Federation combat ship, the Cardassians and Jem'Hadar began to hunt down all those civilian vessels that had failed to escape in time. Meanwhile, the Betazoid government broadcast it's unconditional surrender whilst covertly preparing their stay behind forces for resistance. The surrender offer was ignored. One day after the last Starfleet vessel in the Betazed system was destroyed, the Jem'Hadar began a systematic bombardment of the planet's surface. Twelve hours later, no life more advanced than that of a bacterium survived. Betazed was now for all intents and purposes a dead world.

A little over 3 million Betazoids had survived the destruction of their world, whether because they hadn't been on the planet when the battle began or they had managed to escape before the end came. In time they would rebuild. Indeed, with the technologies that the Coalition would revive, they would be able to re-terraform their home world and return. However, much of their culture was lost.

The Battle of Betazed foreshadowed much that would follow it. For the Federation and Klingon Empire, they saw for the first time that the Dominion didn't just intend to conquer the core worlds; they intended to exterminate their key species. The Dominion for it's part should have seen that the Federation was not yet dead, that they still had fight in them and that their final defeat would take many more vessels.


	11. The First Battle of Saturn

**A/N: thank you for all the reviews. It's good to see that people are liking this. There is a discussion thread for this story over at alternate history dot com. With regards to some of the comments, yes, this is meant to be read as a history, hence the lack of viewpoint characters (I'm also not very good at writing conversation!) Also, yes, the Federation fall hard. They frankly deserve too given how terrible their high leadership are. Saying that, the Dominion are going to lose the war**

 **This will be a long war. Things will get dark. Neither side will have clean hands**

 **Chapter 10: The First Battle of Saturn**

 _"_ _No surrender. No retreat." – Admiral Leyton, UEN at the First Battle of Saturn_

Following the destruction of Betazed, Starfleet and the Klingon Defence forces once more undertook a chaotic retreat. Core Federation and Klingon Empire systems such as Vulcan, Andor and Qo'nos itself came under siege. The remnants of the alliance fleets now found themselves hopelessly intermingled, defending those systems they found themselves in as the Dominion tide thundered onto it's high water mark. While unplanned, the fact that an ad hoc Starfleet task force centred around the USS Galaxy would play a key role in the defence of Qo'nos would go on to be important in later developments.

In the meantime however, Gul Dukat, acting as the over-arching Dominion commander saw that the Sol system appeared under defended. This was an understandable conclusion to reach. Dominion intelligence had accurately determined that Starfleet had fewer than 30 starships in the system having lost so many in the defence of Betazed. They also saw that the various bone yard and museum ships in the system were being rapidly brought up to a minimal combat worthiness. This they saw as further evidence that the Federation was on it's last legs. They also took note of the formation of the UEN but failed to grasp the speed and significance of it's expansion. In short, in the prelude to the battle, Gul Dukat considered the war to be already effectively won. This belief had two major effects. The first was that Dukat, with the support of the Vorta Weyoun, stopped demanding the level of reinforcements he previously had, making clear as he did so that the war was effectively over and what now needed to take place amounted to mopping up operations. This message was particularly welcomed amongst the Vorta on the Gamma Quadrant of the wormhole as they desperately needed to divert resources from the war effort to the efforts to discover a cure for a new mutagenic virus that had started to affect the founders in recent weeks. The second main effect of Dukat's belief was that he sent only 110 Jem'Hadar and Cardassian ships to undertake what was supposed to be the final assault on Sol. This scratch force would realise soon enough that they had badly underestimated the Federation's, and especially Earth's will to fight on.

Within the Sol system, things were seen in a very different light. By the end of September 2374 the Federation Government and Starfleet high command had given in to defeatism. No one within these bodies now believed the war was winnable or even survivable. This was not an opinion held by the government of United Earth however. Driven by a force of will that many would later compare to that of his illustrious ancestor, Prime Minister Soames imparted a will to fight and win in the people of Sol that would drive them to eventual victory. The disparity in attitudes between the leaders of the Federation and those of United Earth begun to have a telling affect. Desperate for hope, citizens, Starfleet officers and the entire UEN begun to look to Earth for orders instead of the Federation. As a result it became increasingly easy for new personnel and ships to be assigned to the UEN and not to Starfleet. Furthermore, the various old and antique starships in the system were seized by the UEN for 'special purposes' that they refused to elaborate on. These ships would form what became known as the Bone-yard Fleet.

The initial Dominion attack took the Starfleet defenders by surprise. Yet again underestimating what the Dominion was capable of, they hadn't expected such an attack until Andor and Vulcan had been conquered or destroyed. However, they rapidly recovered from the shock and began to fight back, using the moons around Saturn to aid them in hit and run attacks. However, they were badly outnumbered and were losing the fight. It was at this point that both sides sensors picked up a mass of obsolete ships closing on their position. There was significant sensor disruption surrounding this fleet but it was possible to make out a number of different ship classes including Miranda class, Excelsior class, Constitution class, Daedalus class and even one NX class vessel, this was the Bone-yard Fleet. All these ships were utterly obsolete; however, they could still pose a threat if not countered. As such, the Cardassian vessels turned to face this new threat.

It was quickly noted that this new force was not operating with the level of expertise expected of Starfleet vessels. Moving to engage, the Cardassians found the ships to be easy pickings. However the sheer number approaching them was causing problems. Inevitably, some Cardassian vessels were lost, but they were winning the fight. What happened next caused immense confusion in the Cardassian and Dominion lines. Instead of breaking off the attack and retreating as Starfleet ships had previously done in such unequal battles, the Bone-yard fleet rammed it's vessels into the Cardassian and Jem'Hadar vessels. As the last bone-yard ship was destroyed, the sensor disruption abruptly lifted. What now became apparent sent a chill down the spines of every single non-Jem'Hadar in the Dominion fleet

The Bone-yard Fleet had been a diversion. Remotely controlled, there had in fact been no crew aboard any of the ships. It had always been known by the UEN that these ships were effectively useless as combat ships. However, by automating them, they could be used as a form of active armour to protect the fleet approaching from behind. Furthermore, any ship that survived could be used as a one shot missile. This tactic destroyed some 23 Cardassian and Jem'Hadar ships.

The Dominion survivors saw the first entrance of the UEN into battle. A Fleet consisting of 2 Sovereign class, 3 Galaxy class, 4 Akira class, 10 Defiant class and 7 Saber class ships, all of the upgraded Terra variants, bore in on the flank of the Dominion fleet. These ships acting as one cohesive whole obliterated the survivors of the bone-yard attack. Seeing the Dominion lines start to bend, the remaining Starfleet vessels also went on the attack, seeking to combine with the UEN force. The effect of this was to form two pincers. This then forced the Dominion fleet to withdraw away from Saturn to escape being trapped in it's gravity well and destroyed.

The battle was no effectively over. The Dominion had lost over 60 vessels and was no longer capable of breaching Earth's defences. Significantly, this damage had fallen disproportionately on that part of the Dominion fleet which had engaged the UEN. Starfleet had again lost significant numbers of vessels. They now had only 14 starships in combat capable condition within Sol, although more ships would become available to them in the next few weeks – even if these were of classes that the UEN had no interest in. The UEN of all the forces taking part lost the least (excluding the Bone-yard Fleet). Losing no capital ships and only 2 Defiant and 5 Saber class vessels, it had been proven in combat. The Bone-yard fleet had been completely destroyed, however this was not only expected but actually intended given it's role in the battle. Despite the defence being led by Starfleet, the battle was widely considered to be a primarily UEN victory. This hastened the increased prestige of United Earth when compared to that of the Federation, something that would inevitably lead to the replacement of the Federation with the Coalition.

Furthermore, with the destruction wrought by the UEN and the Bone-yard Fleets, it was now apparent that the Dominion forces could no longer successfully bounce the defences of Earth. As such the command was given to withdraw to Sol's Oort cloud and await reinforcement. With the forces available to the UEN and Starfleet not being large enough to completely drive off the Dominion force, they had no choice but to allow the establishment of frontlines in and around the Sol system. The Siege of Sol had begun.


	12. Interlude 2: The state of the war

**Interlude 2: The state of the warring powers, October 2374**

 **The Federation**

By the beginning of October 2374, the Federation controlled little more than 30% of it's pre-war territory, it's fleets had taken catastrophic losses and Starfleet was struggling to recruit new personnel. Furthermore, it's core systems were now either under siege or had been already been destroyed. The situation was compounded by the fact that the systems which nominally remained under it's control had by now ceased to listen to it's orders and directives. Most notably Earth itself was increasingly acting like an independent co-belligerent rather than as part of the wider Federation. This situation was replicated other members including Vulcan and Andoria.

Starfleet was by now a mere shadow of it's former self. Whilst Starfleet Command continued to believe that they were in full control of the war effort, individual ships and Captains were in truth taking their lead from Prime Minister Soames of Earth rather than the Admirals who had proved so incompetent. With the majority of new recruits and ships going to the militaries of individual worlds, Starfleet was now largely a spent force. Saying that, starships and small taskforces were still filtering back to the core systems to join in what most believed was the final stand against the Dominion. Amongst these refugee ships was none other than the USS Enterprise E. Atypically of most ships in Starfleet, the Enterprise had had a largely successful war, having taken part in a number of successful operations including the destruction of Dominion shipyards in the opening hours of the war. The ship that certain jokers in the fleet had nicknamed the USS Blows-Shit-Up evaded the Dominion blockade to rejoin the remaining Starfleet forces in the Sol system in the middle of the month. It would play a crucial role in many operations in the months ahead.

 **United Earth**

By the beginning of October 2374 Earth was effectively an independent power once more. All resources in the Sol system were now being marshalled for the war effort. The mass replication of food and consumer goods had ceased and food was now being produced the old-fashioned way – by farming. The energy and replicator time freed up was now being used to manufacture the sinews of war, from the uniforms worn by members of the United Earth armed forces to the ships being rapidly manufactured in every possible shipyard. Much of this effort was automated.

The people of Earth and the Sol system were also being mobilised to an unprecedented level. With an overall population exceeding 10 billion, Sol was able to put hundreds of millions into uniform once conscription got underway. However, it took time for these new conscriptees to be trained as soldiers, let alone be ready to crew starships. In the meantime the UEN was experimenting with holographic crews for it's ships.

The UEN was by now also taking effective control of all alliance forces in the system. The few Klingon vessels present had no issue with this – there was more glory to be had by being part of a UEN force rather than a Starfleet force. Starfleet vessels varied. The survivors of the First Battle of Saturn generally preferred to palce themselves under UEN command. Those stragglers who had arrived after the battle were outraged by this breach of the chain of command. Most prominent of this group was none other than Captain Jean Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise. Despite these disagreements however, there was never any real chance of any hostilities breaking out amongst allies. The entire debate would be rendered pointless in just three short months in any event.

The Earth of October 2374 was a very different place than the Earth of October 2373. Utopia had for all intents and purposes been suspended. Humanity was rediscovering it's old martial skills and prowess. The era of peace and benevolence was over, the era of war was upon them.

 **The Klingon Empire**

The Klingon Empire was also in it's death throws by October 2374. With the majority of it's territory occupied and it's capital world of Qo'nos under siege, the end seemed inevitable. Unlike Sol it was by now manufacturing virtually no new vessels. An emphasis on the glory and honour to be found as a warrior had meant that virtually the entire industrial workforce had joined the military. This trend had only increased as the war situation had deteriorated. By the time the Klingon government had realised their error, it was too late to correct things. Furthermore, unlike the Federation which had a large, underutilised industrial capacity which could be mobilised for war, the Klingon economy had _always_ existed on a setting as this was the only way that they could compete with their giant ally and not just become a satellite to it. This meant that at the time they needed more ships and equipment, there was no resources available to increase production.

The irony was that as Qo'nos lay under siege, there were millions of Klingon warriors doing nothing as there weren't enough ships for them to serve on. Attempts at making these warriors take the place of industrial workers resulted in rioting at a time when disorder could be ill-afforded. Some of these under employed warriors would however find berths on Starfleet vessels that had retreated to Qo'nos with their Klingon allies. These ships were finding it difficult to replace crew members who were killed or incapacitated in combat and so being able to recruit Klingons to fill gaps in the ships roster was essential to maintaining their combat readiness. Towards the end of the siege, Klingons would make up the majority of crews on some Starfleet vessels.

 **The Dominion**

By October 2374 the Dominion bestrode the Alpha and Beta quadrants like a colossus. They either directly or indirectly occupied over 50% of both of their enemies territories. They had their enemies' capital systems under siege and they were maintaining their fleet numbers. To most outside observers they had appeared to have already won the war, with only the final distribution of spoils to be decided. This appearance would influence other, currently neutral parties in their subsequent decisions.

However, all was not as it seemed. The Dominion was actually facing a number of dire issues which weren't immediately apparent and for the most part weren't being communicated up the chain of command to those who needed to know. The Cardassian Union, still the Dominion's main base of operations in the Alpha Quadrant had been hard hit by the war. The majority of the Cardassian fleet had by now been destroyed and shipbuilding wasn't making up for the losses. Furthermore, the Cardassians were running out of military aged individuals who were considered fit for service. As such the proportion of Dominion forces comprised of Cardassians was starting to dip significantly. This would not have been an issue had the Dominion been able to keep up the flow of Jem'Hadar reinforcements. However they weren't. Slowly but surely the flow of Jem'Hadar from the Gamma Quadrant was slowing. The core issue was simple. Jem'Hadar were being killed more quickly than they were being bred. The Dominion only maintained a small number of cloning facilities which were mainly in the Gamma Quadrant. Each facility could only produce soldiers at a certain rate which had now been reached. Early in the war the Dominion had kept the flow of reinforcements high by stripping it's Gamma Quadrant territories of Jem'Hadar to send to fight the war. However, their numbers in the Gamma Quadrant were now as low as it was deemed acceptable to be.

It might have been possible to build more cloning plants if the resources to do this had not been redirected to research into a cure for the morphogenic virus that was now starting to seriously affect the founders. However, with the disease showing no sign of slowing, the Founders deemed it more important to find a cure than to maintain troop levels in the Alpha quadrant. And so, as the campaign seemed to be reaching it's height, they begun to lower the level of reinforcements being sent.

This was a serious strategic error. The Founders had failed to grasp the fact that it's enemies were now building new fleets and armies more quickly than they were being destroyed. Furthermore, the Dominion had insufficient forces available in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants to not only finish of their adversaries but also exert control over the territories that it had wrested from them. In fact by October 2374 large swathes of former Federation territory were in effect under no one's control. This was the space through which Dominion supply convoys had to travel in order to reach the front lines. Attacks on these supply routes by bypassed Starfleet or Klingon vessels, or indeed, plain pirates, were common and further contributed to the slowing of supplies reaching the fronts.

Nevertheless, as October passed, the Dominion started construction of a large fleet support base in the Ross 154 system, only 9.6 light years from Earth in preparation for the final assault.


	13. Romulan Intervention

**Chapter 11: The Romulan Intervention**

By September 2374, the Romulan's were in a quandary. They had originally acted in concert with their fellow Alpha and Beta Quadrant powers in seeking to contain the Dominion to the Gamma Quadrant. To this end they had agreed to provide a cloaking device for use on the USS Defiant as an exception to the Treaty of Algeron and even combined with the Cardassians to launch a doomed pre-emptive assault on the Founders home world. The Romulans also sent a fleet to stand alongside their erstwhile Federation and Klingon enemies at Deep Space 9 following the Dominion absorbing the Cardassian Union. However, as the Federation-Klingon alliance slowly lost diplomatic ground in the following months, elements of the Romulan leadership that favoured allowing their enemies to exhaust themselves fighting each other came to the fore.

The Romulan-Dominion Non-aggression pact that was signed just prior to the outbreak of war should be viewed in the context of the internal politics of the Romulan Senate. There were in essence three main parties in the Senate. The first viewed the Dominion as an existential threat to the Empire. Members of this party, referred to subsequently as the Interventionists, mainly called for the Romulans to stand alongside the Federation and Klingons in opposing the Dominion. The Interventionists were initially in the ascendant but fell from power after the Cardassians joined the Dominion as increasing numbers of Senators defected to the other two groupings over the perceived failure of the containment policy. The second group, referred to here as the Isolationists preferred to let the Federation-Klingon Alliance fight it out with the Dominion alone. This group also saw the Dominion as an existential threat to the Romulan Star Empire but believed that the Federation-Klingon Alliance would be able to fight it to a standstill and achieve a peace of exhaustion. This was seen as the best possible result for the Romulans as it would have meant that there would subsequently be significant opportunities during and after the war to expand that the Federation and Klingons would be too exhausted to oppose. Furthermore, the Isolationists argued that should the war start to go badly for the Alliance; they could always intervene against the Dominion at a later date to forestall a final defeat for the Alliance.

Lastly there were the Pro-Dominion party. This was by far the smallest of all the parties within the Senate. It argued that the Romulan Star Empire should ally itself with the Dominion against it's old enemies. This group argued that by attacking the Federation and Klingons when they were otherwise engaged against the Dominion would allow them to seize territory that they viewed as rightfully theirs, including the Neutral Zone, systems that lay just across the Neutral Zone and perhaps even forcibly reunite Vulcan with the Romulan Empire. This party was viewed by many as a Dominion mouthpiece.

In the early months of the war, after the fall of the Interventionists, the Isolationists were in the ascendant. Despite the ongoing defeats suffered by the Alliance forces, they viewed the direction the war was taken as vindication of their position. The Dominion was slowly exhausting the Alliance, but was also draining itself of forces since they couldn't be reinforced. The defeat of Operation Return and subsequent removal of the minefield around the Bajoran Wormhole that prevented the Dominion from reinforcing it's Alpha Quadrant forces changed this. It was now becoming apparent that the Alliance was losing the war. The defeat of Operation Return began a debate within the Senate as to how and when the Romulans should intervene. However, events were moving more rapidly than the debate. Whilst the Senators debated, Starfleet collapsed. The fall of Betazed would be the final nail in the coffin of any hope that the Romulans would somehow intervene on behalf of the Alliance and save them all. Once news of Betazed's fate reached Romulus, those remaining Senators still arguing for a declaration of war against the Dominion would change their position. Whilst the majority of Senators still saw the Dominion as an existential threat to the Romulan Star Empire, they also believed that the Federation and Klingon Empire had already lost the war and that Romulus did not have the military might to change that. At this point it was believed, declaring war on the Dominion would simply invite the Dominion to unleash the same destruction on Romulus that they already had on Betazed and which was no doubt soon going to be unleashed on Earth and Qo'nos. Better then to remain quiet and hope death would pass them by.

It was at this point that the Pro-Dominion Party truly began to gain significant support. Whilst never in a position to actually gain power, they were now gaining enough support to influence policy. The defeat of the Federation was, they claimed, an opportunity. The Romulan fleet should reclaim the Neutral Zone that was rightfully theirs. More-over, if the Dominion was truly a threat (which they didn't accept it was), surely it was better to establish a greater buffer zone between Romulus and territory that would shortly fall to the Dominion? The First Battle of Saturn and the obvious weakening of the Federation's control over it's remaining territory solidified the Romulan position. They would intervene. But against the Alliance. It was believed that this would help ensure the continued existence of the Romulan Empire.

The Romulan intervention when it came was fast and surgical. With little left to oppose them, the Klingons and Federation were able to do little to prevent what was being publicly described as a humanitarian intervention to prevent Federation and Klingon citizens living close to the Neutral Zone from suffering the same fate as the Betazoids. Starfleet personnel were detained and then returned with all their personal belongings and equipment to the Federation side of the new border. Those few Klingon forces near the border fought and died rapidly, overwhelmed by surprise and odds exceeding ten to one. Within one week the brief Romulan Intervention was over. The Romulans had annexed not only the Neutral Zone but space up to a distance of 10 light years away from the former border. There was little the Alliance could do.

The diplomatic response to this action proved mixed. The various Alpha and Beta Quadrant neutrals viewed the Romulan action as the least-worst solution. The various powers were all growing increasingly worried about the likely Dominion victory. They had all chafed against the soft-power presented by the Federation, but it was a fairly unthreatening power. The Dominion on the other hand was a large, aggressive power with enough hard-force to seemingly crush the Federation behemoth in less than year. All of these powers had over the preceding months considered intervening on the side of the Federation. All had rejected this course for exactly the same reasons that the Romulans had. From that perspective, having Federation territory fall under someone other than Dominion was preferential to it all falling to the Dominion.

The Dominion for their part had tacitly agreed to the Romulan action. Focussed as they were on conquering the Federation and Klingon core systems and trying to maintain control over a large area of former Alliance territory was stretching their resources. Allowing (and the Dominion did view it as 'allowing') the Romulans to take on some of the burden of maintaining order was considered an acceptable compromise. Once the Federation and Klingon Empire had been conquered and the Dominion had consolidated it's control, the Romulans would be conquered anyway. In the meantime, they would be permitted a few scraps.

The response of the Federation and Klingons was both volcanic and muted. The propaganda and diplomatic lines being taken was that the Romulan Intervention was an unprovoked stab in the back during a time of dire threat. Militarily however there was little they could do. Hence the only solid response from the Alliance would be to withdraw from all treaties with the Romulan Star Empire. This was seen as a minor response at the time, emblematic of how weak the Alliance powers now were. Indeed, the apparent lack of ability of the Federation and Klingons to respond would result in several small powers also taking bites out of Alliance territory. However what all powers failed to realise was that one of the treaties that the Federation had just withdraw from was the Treaty of Algeron.

Within hours of that withdrawal, at covert locations throughout the Sol system, operatives of Section 31 started to replicate phasing cloaking devices suitable for installation on most modern Starfleet ship classes from pre-existing plans. Within the week, the first ships within the UEN would begin to be so equipped...


	14. Interlude 3: Section 31

**Interlude 3: Section 31**

 _"Interesting, isn't it? The Federation claims to abhor Section 31's tactics, but when they need the dirty work done, they look the other way. It's a tidy little arrangement, wouldn't you say?" – Odo_

Section 31. Officially it did not exist, had never existed. Had you asked most Starfleet Officers about the organisation they wouldn't have known what you were talking about. Even at the highest levels of Starfleet, most had never heard of the organisation that would prove in many way to be the saviour, if not of the Federation itself, then of it's successor, the Coalition.

Section 31 originated soon after the establishment of the United Earth's Starfleet – the predecessor of the Federation's Starfleet. It started in the same manner as it would exist for the next 200 years, as a practically autonomous organisation that drew it's personnel from various sources, not least Starfleet officers with a certain "do whatever it takes" attitude. In many ways it was the successor to the various spy agencies of 20th Century Earth. The KGB, CIA and MI6 would all have recognised it's approach as similar to their own. The Federation however abhorred such methods, especially the pre-war Federation that saw itself as a utopia where such antiquated methods as those used by Section 31 was anathema to their way of life. Nevertheless, members of the organisation would argue that their existence was directly mandated by Article 14 Section 31 of Starfleet's charter that allowed Starfleet to use extraordinary measures in times of dire threat.

Prior to the events of the Dominion War, little is known about the actions of Section 31. This is inevitable due to the nature of the organisation which had no known base of operations and kept all records in the heads of it's operatives. However, it is possible to make educated guesses based on their known actions during and in the immediate aftermath of the war. Firstly, whist no evidence exists as to the location of a base, it is apparent that there must have been one. This is due to the fact that on several occasions they were able to roll out tested and battle ready systems on very short notice. It is reasonable to assume that these systems had been designed, tested and perfected long before the war and they were simply waiting for the moment of need. Some authorities suggest the rogue planet WISE0855 could be the location of this base, however no evidence backing this theory has ever been published.

The two most important actions of Section 31 pre-war were undoubtedly the creation and deliberate release of the morphogenic virus that would eventually completely wipe out the Founders and lead to the destruction of the Dominion and the design, testing and perfection of the phasing cloaking device which would be of critical importance in the new-born Coalition's grand counter-offensive which would, after many years of fighting, drive Dominion forces back to the Gamma Quadrant and then hasten the fall of the leaderless Dominion. Section 31 were also peripherally involved in the Genesis project of the late 23rd Century and in the cover up of the incident involving Dr Soran which resulted in the loss of the USS Enterprise-D. In both these cases, Section 31 preserved and later perfected the devices that were considered so potentially devastating that they were banned.

In fact, in the years prior to the outbreak of the Dominion War, a large part of what Section 31 was involved in was the preservation of technologies and knowledge that the Federation, in it's moral superiority had decided should be banned. Even knowledge of how to create the infamous Omega particle was retained. This highly dangerous and unstable substance had the capability of completely destroying subspace and hence preventing warp travel in a seven light year radius if just one particle destabilised. Section 31 planned to use this substance as the ultimate weapon of spite. Their plan was simple, should the Federation be conquered, they would seek to detonate Omega particles throughout Federation, and if possible the enemies territory, hence destroying interstellar civilisation in a large part of the galaxy. Were they seeking to implement this policy in the dying days of 2374? It seems likely they were. We will however never know how close they were to activating this operation.

It would be true to say that Section 31's operations were at best legally questionable. Some of their actions had they been known at the time would have rightfully been condemned as war crimes, some even constituted genocide. Nevertheless, it is an indisputable fact that the actions of Section 31 allowed the nascent Coalition to drive back the Dominion. Had it not been for the morphogenic virus ravaging the Founders it is likely that the Dominion wouldn't have redirected resources from the war effort to finding a cure at a critical moment. Were it not for the cloaking devices that Section 31 developed in breach of the Treaty of Algeron the fight back would have been far bloodier and taken far longer. Indeed without these devices t is likely that the Coalition would not have been able to relieve Qo'nos before it fell. Indeed without these devices Starfleet would not have been able to achieve one of it's last victories in Operation Soran. Furthermore, without knowledge of the weapon developed by Dr Soran, Operation Soran would not have been possible even with the cloaking device. In any event, that operation was a successful gamble that changed the course of the war and will be considered in the next chapter. Finally, without the retention of knowledge of, and subsequent perfection of the Genesis device, it is likely that the Coalition would not have been able to rejuvenate so many ruined worlds so quickly. It would also have made the final battle of the war in the Alpha Quadrant far bloodier for the Coalition.

With this knowledge it is perhaps understandable that the Coalition has always refused to apologise for any of Section 31's actions. Whilst they acknowledge that many of it's actions do indeed constitute genocide, they argue that the dire circumstances justified these actions. Those who argue that that the fact that Section 31 unleashed the morphogenic virus _before_ the outbreak are at best met with a stony silence. At worst they are accused of taking an anti-Coalition viewpoint. Such accusations inevitably lead to an extreme reduction in an individual's opportunities for advancement in whatever field of work they choose to pursue.


	15. Operation Soran part 1

**A/N: Thanks again for all the reviews. I do read them all! Sorry for the delay also, I had a dose of writers block after my holiday. Anyway, here we go with part 1 of Operation Soran. I will (hopefully) post part 2 later this week**

 **Chapter 12: Operation Soran Part 1**

 _Unknown Science Officer: This is_ _Ross 154_ _. It's a red dwarf on the main sequence._

 _Captain Jean-Luc Picard: And so?_

 _Unknown Science Officer: We wanna blow it up._

 _Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Wow._

 _Commander Geordi Laforge: That's, uh..._

 _Captain Jean-Luc Picard: Ambitious_

 _Discussion onboard USS Enterprise-E prior to the commencement of Operation Soran_

The situation for the remnant Federation and it's Klingon and United Earth allies in October 2374 could only be described as dire. The Federation had lost control of over 60% of it's territory and most of it's fleets. The majority of the remainder were now concentrated in the remaining core systems and were now under siege. Likewise, the Klingons had also lost the majority of their territory and found themselves under siege in their home system, cut off from all aid other than that available from the dwindling number of Starfleet vessels which had retreated to Qo'nos rather than Earth. United Earth on the other hand, now acting as a major ally of the Federation rather than it's capital world was rapidly strengthening. It's fleets were growing and becoming more experienced by the day. True, at present it was a rather short ranged force primarily consisting of heavy destroyers, cruisers and system defense vessels rather than capital ships, but it was proving itself in numerous skirmishes in the outer reaches of the Sol system. By this point, the majority of it's vessels had been re-equipped with cloaking devices, as had the remaining Starfleet forces. However at this stage this was a closely guarded secret and the devices were mainly being used to hide the true scale of shipbuilding going on in the inner system. In fact, there was a growing sense of hope and optimism in UEN headquarters as it was becoming apparent that the UEN's buildup was now outpacing that of the Dominion. Indeed, intelligence was reaching both the UEN and Starfleet of a slowing of the pace of Dominion reinforcements. Furthermore, this intelligence indicated that the slowing of reinforcements was due to resources being redirected to curing a strange plague that was afflicting the Founders.

This optimism was however dealt a cruel blow when a major Dominion base was discovered in close orbit of Ross 154, just 9.6 light years away from Earth itself. An extremely large fleet numbering some 800 vessels of all types was detected at this base. It soon became apparent that when combined with the forces engaged in the siege of Sol, the overall enemy numbers exceeded even the 1,200 vessels they deployed for Operation Return. With this fleet nearing full readiness, it was apparent that Earth's time had nearly run out. Even rushing all available vessels into service would not be enough to slow the armada down. The only option was to destroy the Dominion fleet before it could depart Ross 154. The question was how to achieve this. A conventional assault was out of the question. The disparity in forces was just too great and would inevitably lead to a repeat of Sisko's Foley, only this time they wouldn't be able to fall back afterwards and Earth would have been yet again denuded of protection. And yet how else were they going to destroy that many enemy ships?

Starfleet Command was at a loss as to what to do, they could conceive of no means by which they could achieve the desired outcome. A new wave of defeatism and despondency swept through Starfleet Headquarters. At UEN Headquarters, a similar lack of ideas prevailed, the situation seemed unsolvable. In the end it was a Science Officer on board the USS Enterprise who would suggest an audacious plan to deal with the situation. This officer, whose name is sadly lost to history, suggested that they make use of the Enterprise's new cloak to launch one of the most daring raids in history.

His plan was relatively simple in it's concept, but extremely difficult to achieve. The initial phase of what he referred to as 'Operation Soran' would involve a simulated breakout of a number of ships in the direction of Vulcan. This would hopefully thin the Dominion lines closest to Ross 154 and make it easier for the Enterprise to slip through them. The Enterprise would then travel at maximum warp to the Ross 154 system. Once there it would need to get as close to the main star as possible whilst avoiding Dominion security patrols. Once in position they would fire a spread of torpedoes, all fitted with a trilithium warhead at the star itself. They would then immediately go to warp and head out of the system and away from Federation lines. Once they had shaken off any pursuers they would reengage their cloak and return to Earth. The hope was that they would be able to hit the star with at least one of the warheads, causing it to go nova. This would in turn destroy the Dominion base and any vessels which weren't able to escape the shock wave in time. It was further hoped that the element of surprise would delay the reaction of the enemy crews enough that they wouldn't be able to get away in time. Projections suggested that as many as 60% of all ships in system would be caught in the nova and hence destroyed.

The plan was considered too audacious by a demoralised Starfleet command. They refused to even consider it. As a result, Captain Picard informally took the suggestion to Admiral Leyton of the UEN. He was rather impressed by the plan and spoke directly to Prime Minister Soames who, like his illustrious ancestor, was not adverse to daring operations behind enemy lines. With these two in favour of the plan, it was a fore-gone conclusion that it would go ahead. With a sense of resignation, Starfleet's remaining Admirals gave in to political pressure and agreed to the operation, now offically designated Operation Soran. D Day was designated as October 31st 2374. This was a mere 4 days before the Dominion planned to launch it's final assault on Earth...


	16. Operation Soran part 2

**Chapter 13 Operation Soran Part 2**

 _"_ _Earth expects...everyone will do their duty" – Captain Picard prior to the commencement of Operation Soran, paraphrasing Admiral Nelson's famous signal prior to the start of the Battle of Trafalgar_

At 06:00 on Thursday 31st October, 100 UEN ships, primarily made up of heavy destroyers and cruisers made a break out attempt from the Sol system. The ships attempted to force their way through Dominion siege lines in order to relieve the remaining Starfleet forces at Vulcan. The battle raged for four hours, with UEN vessels maintaining a strong unit cohesion, ensuring they remained in formation and didn't get involved in dogfights with Dominion vessels. After three hours they received the recall order and retreated back towards the UEN lines. Afterwards, analysis of the battle showed that the UEN had given a good account of itself. The UEN itself had lost some 21 ships in the melee whilst the Dominion had lost over 50. In fact the Dominion had been forced to thin their siege lines elsewhere in the system in order to contain the breakout attempt. The UEN had only retreated once significant Dominion reinforcements had arrived. UEN and Starfleet analysts therefore concluded that whilst the attempt had been defeated, it appeared that the new UEN tactics were indeed effective.

Of course, what the vast majority of personnel on both sides of the battle didn't realise was that the true purpose of the exercise was to allow the USS Enterprise to slip through the weakened Dominion lines and carry out Operation Soran. Once through the Dominion lines, the Enterprise had flown under cloak towards the Ross 154 system. It is likely that had a lesser Captain been in command of the ship, the mission could have failed at this point. Moral was rock bottom due to the constant stream of defeats that the Federation had suffered. Many Starfleet Officers and crew considered the war already lost and there was significant disquiet about the use of weapons of mass destruction in this operation. It was in no small part due to Picard's calm leadership that the Enterprise was able to carry out it's mission.

On arriving at the Ross 154 system, the Enterprise began to carry out passive scans of the system. It rapidly became apparent that the intelligence they had regarding the system wasn't 100% accurate. The number of Dominion ships present was nearer 1,000 than 800. Furthermore, it was apparent that they were all at a high level of readiness. Based on the data received, it was estimated that the Dominion fleet would be ready to leave in at most 24 hours. There was only one possible target for them. Earth.

The higher readiness status of the Dominion ships, combined with the increased numbers put the entire mission in jeopardy. The possibility of discovery was far higher than initially thought. Furthermore it was probable that more Dominion vessels would be able to escape the nova. However, Picard also realised that if he did not act, then Earth would fall in a matter of days. There was no choice, the mission had to go ahead and had to succeed. The only change to the plan that would be made would be a single, highly encrypted, narrow band transmission being sent back to Earth warning them that the Dominion fleet would arrive within a matter of days. This warning would be crucial to the outcome of the Second Battle of Saturn.

This transmission was detected by Dominion patrol ships who moved to investigate it. Initially detecting no ships, the Jem'Hadar began scanning the area with anti-proton beams in order to determine whether or not any cloaked ships were present. At this point it appeared that SORAN had already failed. As such, the Enterprise crew prepared to drop their cloak and attempt to fight their way into the system in a forlorn attempt to launch the 10 trilithium torpedoes that the ship was carrying. However when the beams did in actual fact intersect with the Enterprise, it rapidly became clear that the new Federation cloak was immune to this method of detection.

Slipping past the patrol vessels, the Enterprise slowly crept in system. It took several tense hours for the Enterprise to reach the inner system. There were several close calls throughout this period, during which it became apparent that most current methods for detecting cloaked ships were ineffective against the interphase cloak. However, during this time, Dominion activity continued to increase. There was more and more aggressive patrolling by Jem'Hadar attack ships, it was apparent that they suspected something was happening.

Eventually the Enterprise managed to slip past the Dominion base and approached the corona of the star. This was the most difficult part of the entire mission. In order to successfully deploy the trilithium torpedoes, they would need to first de-cloak, then raise their shields, then move to the very edge of Ross 154's corona. Only then could they launch their torpedoes. Once launched, they would need to retreat far enough away from the star so that they could drop their shields and raise their cloak. Only then would they be able to retreat. In all, there would be a period of 3 minutes when the ship would be visible to any Dominion ship looking in the right direction. In an attempt to increase the likelihood of success, the Enterprise moved so it was on the opposite side of the star before it de-cloaked and raised it's shields. At this point they were charging at maximum impulse towards the star. It took almost a minute before they were spotted. Raising the alarm, the first Jem'Hadar attack ship attempted to ram the Enterprise to slow it down. However a Jem'Hadar attack ship was no match for a Sovereign class Battleship. The Enterprise easily destroyed it before it came to close. The damage was done however. Every available Dominion ship in the system now sought to engage and destroy the Enterprise. The next few minutes would be a trial by combat for the crew.

Thirty seconds after they destroyed the first patrol vessel, the Enterprise fired the trilithium torpedoes. They immediately changed direction and started moving away from Ross 154. However, this meant that they were now moving towards the incoming Dominion ships. Individual patrol ships or even flights of them were no threat to the Enterprise. The squadron of Jem'Hadar battleships that were only 80 seconds away were. It would take the Enterprise 90 seconds to reach the point that it could drop it's shields, raise cloak and escape.

In a snap decision, Picard ordered the Enterprise to go to warp whilst only a few thousand kilometres from the Ross 154's corona. While no doubt dangerous, this allowed the Enterprise to momentarily escape it's pursuers. Once at warp, the Enterprise was able to drop it's shields and raise it's cloak before changing course in order to confuse their pursuers and observe the impact of the raid.

As the Enterprise charged the oncoming Jem'Hadar battleships, the torpedoes impacted the star and detonated. A cascading reaction began within the star, destabilising it's structure and preventing fusion occurring in the core. The star was now only 2 minutes from nova.

The Dominion at first didn't realise what was happening. They were focussed on the destruction of the Enterprise. They had assumed that the Federation ship was engaged in a spying mission. It took 40 seconds from the impact of the torpedoes before a Vorta noticed that something was wrong with Ross 154 and a further 30 seconds to work out what was happening.

It then took a crucial 40 seconds to convince Weyoun, the senior Vorta present of what was happening and get an emergency evacuation order issued. It was too late. At 15.03 on Saturday 2nd November, 2374 Ross 154 went nova. The Dominion base, located in close proximity to the star's corona would be amongst the first casualties. The nova shock wave would rapidly expand, destroying all ships that didn't jump to warp quickly enough. Most of the Dominion ships on patrol would escape, as would those battleships that had been pursuing the Enterprise. The greater part of the invasion force would not be so lucky however.

Under cloak, the Enterprise slowly approached the system in order to gather intelligence on the effectiveness of the raid. It was beyond their best hopes. Their initial data indicated that upwards of 600 vessels had been destroyed. For the most part, those ships destroyed were those in the inner system who hadn't been fully ready for operation. Thus, virtually all the remaining Cardassian fleet was lost, as was the majority of the Jem'Hadar capital ships. In addition, although this would not be learnt until after the war, the majority of the Dominion high command including Weyoun and Dukat but not the female changeling had been onboard the base when it was destroyed.

The response of the Dominion was slow. With their high command destroyed, it took time to sort out who was in charge and bring order to the remaining ships. The female changeling, who had been on board one of the Jem'Hadar battleships, then ordered the activation of a new Weyoun clone. She further ordered that the remaining Dominion vessels concentrate on the Sol system. The final assault on Earth would be delayed by a few days but no more. The strength of that assault though was far less than it should have been.

The Enterprise meanwhile would take a circuitous route back to Sol in order to avoid vengeful Dominion patrols. They would arrive back during the later stages of the Second Battle of Sol although they would take no part in the fighting.


	17. The Second Battle of Saturn

**Thank you all for your patience. I do appreciate all reviews. I am currently rewriting each chapter but in the meantime, here is a completely new part.**

 **Each chapter is going to be lengthened and where there are 2 parts posted, I'll be merging them. The story will now be split into a 3 part ark. These are:**

 **Star Trek: Utopia's Fall**

 **Star Trek: The Rise of the Coalition**

 **Star Trek: Death of a Tyranny**

 **We are nearing the end of the first arc, which I will complete once I have updated all chapters**

 **The Second Battle of Saturn**

 _"Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning" – Sir Winston Churchill_

In the aftermath of Operation Soran, the Dominion began to concentrate its remaining forces for a final assault against Earth. Their devastated High Command believed that the destruction of Ross 154 was a last, final gasp of defiance from a defeated enemy and despite their losses, they were on the verge of victory. Their intelligence indicated that Starfleet was down to it's last, few rag tag ships. Mostly these were modern classes (virtually all the obsolete ships had by now been destroyed) but even so, they were all in desperate need of refits. They discounted the UEN as a system defence force that would be swept before the victorious Dominion forces once Starfleet was dealt with. Their success in the First Battle of Saturn was dismissed as a consequence of a surprise assault coupled with the use of obsolete ships as an ablative shield. Whilst this may have been arguably true at the time of the battle, it wasn't the case by November 2375. The intervening two months had allowed the UEN to go from a small, system defence force to a full fleet capable of engaging enemy forces without assistance. With a base strength of 6 Sovereign-Terra class, 18 Galaxy-Terra class, 18 Akira-Terra class, 36 Defiant-Terra class and 60 Sabre-Terra class, the First Earth Fleet was an impressive force when Admiral Leyton raised his flag on the Sovereign-Terra class UES Indomitable. The Second Earth fleet was also well on its way to operational status (and indeed elements of this fleet would participate in the upcoming battle).

The failure of Dominion intelligence was down to two very powerful factors. The first was the rapid and widespread introduction of the phased cloaking device into the UEN. This allowed the UEN to hide it's build up with effective maskirovka. This effort was so successful that the Dominion believed that in the prelude to the Second Battle of Saturn, Starfleet had only managed to add 3 capital vessels and 5 escorts of various classes to its fleets whilst the UEN had only been able to add a handful of escorts. The second factor was an unseen side effect of Operation Soran. The destruction of the majority of the Dominion assault fleet had effectively decapitated their forces. Other than the female Changeling, no senior commanders were left. Whilst clones of the Vorta commanders were rapidly activated, no replacements were on hand for the Cardassian commanders. Indeed, there were so few Cardassian ships left after Soran that the remainder were squadroned together and placed under the authority of a relatively junior Vorta. This held a significance far beyond initial appearances. Prior to Soran, the Cardassian and Vorta commanders had often competed for the attention of the female Changeling. The core of the clash came from the different ways in which the Cardassians and Vorta viewed the Founders. To the Cardassians, the Founders were the leaders they owed their loyalty too. This did not mean that they should be followed slavishly, rather, they should provide all necessary facts and opinions to the Founders, disagreeing with them on occasion, to allow the best possible decisions to be made. This attitude meant that the Cardassians were far more argumentative than the Vorta. An attitude that did not endear them to the Changeling. However, they were also the only one providing accurate information. On the other hand, the Vorta viewed the Changeling as a god, and anything she said was therefore the word of a god and infallible. What the changeling stated was fact. This meant that with the removal of the Cardassian commanders, there was no longer anyone left who could question the intelligence coming in prior to the battle. This lack would have devastating consequences for the upcoming battle.

It would take 3 days to concentrate the remainder of the assault fleet for the final attack on Earth. The plan was simple. The 200 remaining vessels (mainly Jem H'adar fighters) of the assault fleet would combine with 300 vessels of the siege force (75% of the total) to pierce the Federation lines in the vicinity of Saturn. The victorious forces would then break out towards Earth where they would bomb the planet with biogenic weapons. The remaining inhabited planets and facilities in the Sol system would then be given the options of surrendering or being destroyed. With the Jem H'adar forces outnumbering the (assumed) Federation forces, the plan had a very good chance of success, despite the lack of capital ships in the Dominion fleet (they only had 4 battleships available!) However, the failures in intelligence had kept them blind to the true correlation of forces.

The Alliance forces available for the battle were comprised of three distinct parts. The first part was the on the Dominion knew most of. This was the Starfleet force. This force consisted of two Sovereign class vessels, one Galaxy plus two Galaxy refit class vessels, one Ambassador class vessel, an Excelsior class vessel called, oddly, the USS Titanic that had somehow survived everything the war had thrown at it, five Defiant, three Intrepid and four Akira class vessels. Starfleet was also trying to get a lone Prometheus class ship ready for battle. The second force was the UEN force that the Dominion intelligence knew next to nothing of. Whilst neither the upcoming Gloriana class battleships nor the (as yet unnamed) carriers were not yet in service, the UEN consisted of the entirety of the establishment strength of the First Earth Fleet, a rapidly growing Second Earth Fleet consisting of 6 Sovereign-Terras, 8 Galaxy Terras, 13 Akira-Terras, 23 Defiant-Terras and 15 Sabre-Terras and the various system defence flotillas that amounted to a further 30 Defiant-Terras and 75 Sabre-Terras. The UEN had also fortified the Alliance lines with a multitude of modified Rom class cloaked, self-replicating mines. The third 'force' on the Alliance side was a single Klingon Negh'var class warship, the IKS K'mpec, whose crew, being unable to make it back to Qo'nos for a last stand there, had decided to die a glorious death in battle alongside their human allies.

The Alliance, knowing that a battle was imminent, planned to trap, and if possible destroy the Dominion force. By this point, they knew they had vastly superior numbers of capital ships and planned to make full use of this. Using their interior lines, they would hold back their forces until the main Dominion attack axis became apparent. At this point, the Starfleet and Klingon forces, supported by a third of the system defence flotillas would engage. They were to give the Jem H'adar the impression that they were attempting to stop the Dominion advance whilst slowly drawing them further into the trap. Once thoroughly engaged, the UEN First and Second fleets would then attack the Jem H'adar in the flanks, hopefully encircling and destroying the enemy forces.

The Dominion attack started with several fighter squadrons, supported by a battleship using antigraviton beams to deactivate a portion of the minefield. Whilst this operation was ongoing a serious of increasingly bitter clashes took place between the local UEN squadrons and Jem H'adar forces who were defending the mine clearance forces. As these clashes escalated, both sides put their main forces on alert. At the same time, planetary defence forces throughout the Sol system were prepared to face possible invasions. The UEN forces defending the minefield generally kept within its bounds, dashing out to attack the enemy mine clearance vessels. These ships, unable to defend themselves due to their work were easy pickings if they were caught alone. The Alliance however, chose not to reinforce their defending squadrons. The Dominion had to believe that they were on their last legs. Eventually, after clashes lasting nearly 48 hours, the UEN squadrons retreated from the minefield. They had taken nearly 30% losses in the battle of the minefield, but inflicted nearer 70% losses on the Dominion, including the battleship that had become separated from the rest of the mine clearance forces and then swarmed by multiple mines before the coup de grace was delivered by the Defiant class UES Churchill.

With the withdrawal of the defending squadrons, the Dominion was able to rapidly create a hole in the minefield. This is when they hit their first obstacle. The modifications made to the Rom class mines meant that the larger part of the field survived. These surviving mines immediately began replicating replacement mines to fill the gap created. Gradually, the minefield began to slowly close the hole. Seeing this, the Vorta commander ordered the majority of his fleet through the hole, detailing two squadrons of fighters to keep the hole open. These squadrons would be amongst the first casualties of the UEN counter-attack.

As the Dominion fleet swarmed through the minefield, Starfleet, joined by the Klingon ship and the UEN defence flotillas moved to engage. Using their superiority in capital ships, the Alliance forces were able to rapidly destroy the three remaining Jem H'adar battleships at long range and then begin to engage the waves of attack fighters. Luckily for the Dominion, the commanding Vorta had chosen to 'lead' the fight from a fighter at the rear of the Dominion fleet – on that would in fact never pass the minefield. This meant that the destruction of the three battleships didn't immediately deprive the Dominion of its commander.

Despite the destruction of their capital ships, the Dominion forces kept up their advance. Slowly the Alliance was driven away from the minefield. Eventually the Alliance fleet was strung out in a very thin line struggling to hold back the waves of Jem H'adar. At this point, it would appear that the Dominion had won. Down to some 20 vessels with over 200 enemy fighters either engaging or attempting to engage them, all appeared lost. The Klingons had got their wish, having charged into a mass of Jem H'adar fighters and destroying most of them before one of their opponents managed to ram them, causing a warp core breach which destroyed even more fighters. In total, the IKS K'mpec would destroy 1 battleship and at least 30 fighters before it met its fate. In centuries to come, the epic opera 'K'mpec's Last Stand' would become a classic of Klingon culture and the example of the K'mpec's crew would be held up as an example of what was expected of all Coalition soldiers. At this point, as the Dominion forces tasted victory, the First and Second fleets struck. The 197 vessels of the combined fleet de-cloaked and within seconds destroyed the fighter squadrons holding open the minefield, along with the Vorta commanders ship. With the vessels responsible for holding the gap open destroyed and the Jem H'adar forces outside the minefield engaged, the trap rapidly closed around the assault force.

In terms of number of vessels, the two opposing fleets were still roughly comparable in numbers. However, the Dominion now had no capital ships left, whilst nearly a third of the opposing Alliance fleet were actual capital ships. Furthermore, the Alliance escort ships were all, saving the Titanic, technologically superior to the Jem H'adar fighters. The result of the battle at this point was not in doubt. The resulting few hours were a slaughter. The Jem H'adar refused to surrender and they were unable to retreat due to the closing of the minefield. Each fighter fought and died. Many attempted suicide runs, trying to take their enemies with them. Against the UEN fleets, this was completely unsuccessful. These forces fought as a co-ordinated whole. Any attempted suicide run got the undivided attention of multiple ships. Against the remnant Starfleet force, it was more successful. The remaining Starfleet Sovereign (save the Enterprise which was only now returning from Soran) and Galaxy class ships were all destroyed, many after being rammed by the enemy. This desperate tactic never altered the inevitable however. Thirteen hours after the Dominion fleet had first penetrated the minefield, the battle was over. The Dominion attack fleet had been completely annihilated. The female Changeling now had no choice, the Dominion siege force was ordered to withdraw back to Ross 154.

As the Jem H'adar retreated, the Alliance counted the cost. Starfleet had lost virtually the entirety of its remaining forces. Only the Enterprise which did not take part in the battle and the Titanic which seemed to be defying its unlucky name were left in the Sol system. Starfleet command only knew of a further 20 or so vessels left elsewhere. Starfleet had essentially ceased to exist. The UEN had also suffered heavy casualties, primarily amongst their system defence forces. These light flotillas had suffered up to 60% casualties during the battle. The First and Second fleets had however suffered relatively little. No major units were destroyed and the escort flotillas had only suffered 20% losses. Both needed rest and refit before undertaking further operations, but they were essentially in good condition.

Upon hearing the news of the battle, Soames order that a message be sent out to the entirety of the Alpha and Beta quadrants. Earth had held. Coming on the heels of the Romulan intervention and the fall of Qo'nos, it was a massive boost to moral. He furthermore requested that all Federation members and allies send representatives for a conference on Earth to discuss the future. The Second Battle of Saturn was the first major victory the Alliance had had since the first day of the war. The cost had been high, but, still unknown to all, the Dominion had reached its high tide mark.


End file.
